Educating Louisa – Part Five: When Harry Met Sally
When the Fellows and Associates team hired Louisa, it was on the basis that she was an intelligent, cultured and interesting individual – qualities that she exuded during her interview. Unfortunately, what they didn’t know is that Louisa’s ‘films viewed’ portfolio was disappointingly unrefined. Pete Fellows has therefore taken on the role of teacher of all things cinema, and will assign different ‘must see’ films for Louisa to watch and review, for both her own education and your reading pleasure.
When Harry Met Sally – Refreshingly Realistic
A year or so ago, if you’d have asked me what my least favourite genre of film was I would have said rom com in a heartbeat. I really do dislike the slushy and sentimental. However, I have to confess that as I get older I am becoming partial to a bit of soppiness, so to everyone’s surprise I was happy to give ‘When Harry Met Sally’ a go.
The primary problem with the film (for the purpose of this review) is the fact that it was good. It wasn’t mind blowing, I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it again, but I definitely enjoyed it. And that is about the gist of it so I’ll keep this short and sweet.
I guess it’s worth noting the big names that make the film what it is; the charming Meg Ryan (Sally) and cheeky Billy Crystal (Harry) whose performances are difficult to fault.
Princess Leia, otherwise known as Carrie Fisher, also makes an appearance as the pair’s close friend Marie (I have recently watched Star Wars for the first time – unforgivable I know).
The film score and setting is wonderful and very much up my street. Songs by the greats such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby, coupled with the winter in Manhattan setting reminded me of all of the reasons I love ‘Elf’ so much.
The story line is simple yet heart-warming; boy meets girl, girl wants to be friends but boy believes that ‘men and women can’t be friends’, so boy and girl go their separate ways. After a number of failed relationships, they meet again and become the best of friends, thus putting the age old predicament to the test. Perhaps not surprisingly, boy is proven right and their relationship ends up much more than platonic. However, in a nod to the strength and bond of marriage, they find true love and companionship in one another.
Writer Nora Ephron’s storyline cleverly plays with the boundaries between platonic and physical relationships in a light hearted and relatable way. It isn’t a windswept love at first sight romance kind of thing. The attraction between the two isn’t instantaneous and fairy tale like. It develops slowly as a result of years of friendship and shared experiences, making it seem all the more authentic. The stand out element for me is the short ‘interview’ style clips between scenes, showing elderly couples reminiscing about how they met. Although the actors aren’t ‘real’, their responses are from real life couples and almost (but not quite) had me in tears.
I really can see why many often refer to ‘When Harry Met Sally’ as an archetype for modern rom com. It is intelligent and most importantly accurate, and if more films followed suit the genre as a whole would be substantially better placed to win my approval.
Pete is happy to have found a film that Louisa couldn’t slate. However Louisa has had enough of being complimentary, so has asked Pete to choose something a little more off the wall for next month’s review. He chose ‘The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad’… naturally.