When Clemenza met Princess Leia

Rating: 7/10 (13 March 2010)

Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher play the obligatory wisecracking, slightly less attractive best friends of the title characters, who make a thoroughly predictable journey from sniping to smooching in this formulaic romantic comedy. It's not without charm, of course -- writer Nora Ephron has a good ear for a one-liner and director Rob Reiner is a good, economical storyteller. But it's still just a cute date movie, since Epron's wit is more glib than deep (real people don't debate the meaning of "Auld Lang Syne") and Reiner is not above resorting to clichÃ© (every plot point is punctuated by some Golden Oldie like "It Had To Be You," just in case you're missing the point of the scene). There's also the title characters, two neurotic yuppies in New York. Harry is a whiny, self-absorbed, self-pitying schnook, but since he's played by Billy Crystal, he gets all the best lines. Sally is brittle and high-maintenance, but since she's played by Meg Ryan, she's also utterly adorable. There's too much sentiment, and at some point you're going to want to clobber Crystal with an aluminum baseball bat, but there are plenty of fun set pieces (the legendary restaurant scene, the interviews with happy old couples that have nothing to do with the rest of the movie) and really, in 2010 it's refreshing to watch a middlebrow romantic comedy since they don't seem to exist anymore. (Quick note to Rob Reiner: if you are driving from the Hyde Park to New York, you will not pass downtown Chicago unless your are going via Canada. Which would take a lot longer.)