"We are just going to be friends, OK?"

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2015)

Anyone who's ever seen the movie will remember THAT scene, indelibly burned into one's memory banks like so few movie scenes ever wind up doing. Coming out of nowhere, Meg Ryan offers one of the best and funniest deliveries ever, with the "I'm having what she's having" follow up just the icing on the cake. Priceless.
This is a pretty enjoyable movie; as a classic movie fan of the Thirties and Forties I could imagine Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan pulling off something like this if they were around in 1989. They're a pair that could rattle off the kind of snappy dialog you had here with Billy Crystal and Miss Ryan. The four way phone conversation for example called for incredible concentration and precise timing and along with Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher, the principal players delivered big time. Also, before I get off the classic movie theme, the picture had a fair number of references to my all time favorite "Casablanca", so that was pretty cool too.
But watching today there's also a moment of reflection provided in the scene when Harry (Crystal) and Sally (Ryan) first arrive in New York City, and you can plainly see the image of the Twin Towers silhouetted by an arch where Harry gets out of the car. It's a poignant reminder that we live in a different world and different era today. For a moment, that image changed the tone of the picture for me.
But not to get too maudlin over things. "Harry and Sally" represents the quintessential 'chick flick' kind of film that gets made every now and then and winds up with a huge following. This one will be watched and enjoyed for a long time, and coming from a guy, I guess that's a pretty good recommendation.