Quality

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 1999)

It now looks pretty old hat, simply because we've now suffered an overdose of romcoms, all cast in the same mould (actually, all cast with the same cast, come to think of it). But this is the first and best of its kind by miles.
Marrying Ephron's script with Reiner's light direction is where the film scores over its imitators, along with having Crystal and Ryan appear fresh and untainted by later failures. Ephron clearly used up all her best jokes here and in the first half of Sleepless in Seattle. WHMS really does have a smart line every minute, and not all of them from Crystal ("You made a woman miaow?").
Whether the movie's assertion that men and women can't be friends is outside the scope of this criticism, though the ending suggests otherwise. And while using 'Auld Lang Syne' to underscore the climax stinks of imitation (Waterloo Bridge, anyone?) it still makes me cry every time.
On the down side, this film has a lot to answer for. It gave rise to a stream of soppy joke-free 'comedies', all set in a large American city, with an easy listening soundtrack, a strong yet vulnerable male hero, a sassy yet vulnerable female hero, a couple of mad friends and a cameo from a well-known director (usually Reiner himself). Accept no substitutes - this is the 10 out of 10 original.