When Harry Met Sally

Rating: 9/10 (7 August 2013)

Wonderful romantic comedy (one of the best and most memorable from the 80s) focuses on two friends (Harry, a political consultant, Sally, a journalist) who find themselves struggling not to fall in love, attempting to date other people while secretly pining for each other, and soon no longer able to resist the urgings for more than just conversation over long walks and lunches discussing the love-making they could have together. Look, the conversations (with lots of clever and funny banter back and forth, mostly about sex and relationships, what men and women truly think and feel despite what they say and seem to convey) are a major asset between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, but the stars' chemistry (this really sets Ryan's career off) is impeccable. I love the quiet discomfort and inability to dismiss their first sexual encounter as a "mistake", and their New Years Eve confrontation, addressing how they truly feel for each other, was a nice way to close the film, the conclusion fitting and satisfying.
With Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher perfectly cast as Crystal and Ryan's best buds, a "fake orgasm" in a deli (as Ryan (effectively) convinces Crystal that you can fool a man into believing he's successfully pleased his female partner, with the "I'll have what she's having" line an absolute classic), several early encounters between Ryan and Crystal that has them arguing about "what men and women really want" (Crystal often just aggravating Ryan, getting her emotionally all out of sorts because mostly what he says is true and she can't accept it), and those passing glances of aching and acknowledgment (I had forgotten just how good Crystal, in particular, was at that; Ryan has a character that tries hard to pass off as if nothing about break-ups and "mistaken sex" bothers her, but it all eventually spills out when she simply wants a real relationship, meaningful and of depth), as well as, excerpts from real older marrieds commenting on how they wound up together, helped make "When Harry Met Sally" such an enduring treasure. Include the New York setting as the obviously appropriate backdrop and the likability of the stars amidst it, and why wouldn't this film remain such a valued and cherished romantic comedy?