Review of When Harry Met Sally

Introduction

Directed by acclaimed film-maker Rob Reiner ("This Is Spinal Tap", "A Few Good Men"), "When Harry Met Sally" is the story of Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Meg Ryan), two college students who share a car journey from Chicago to New York in 1970s America. To make short the eighteen-hour drive, they begin to chat - and disagree - about relationships, with Harry claiming that men and women can never be friends, as "the sex part always gets in the way". Once in New York, with Harry adamant that it isn`t possible for them to be friends, and with Sally having no interest in her cynical travel companion, the two part ways, with Sally adding "That`s too bad…you were the only person I knew in New York".

But this would not be a first and final meeting for Harry and Sally, as fate - or luck - contrives to cross their paths on more than one further occasion. Can a man and a woman really be just friends? And if they can, is that all that fate has planned for Harry and Sally?

Video

Video is presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, in its original theatrical format of 1.85:1. Image quality is generally very good, although certainly a little soft in comparison to today`s best productions. There are also small issues with film artefacts, but these are not distracting in the least, and you have to go looking for them to find them.

Whilst it doesn`t sound like that long ago, this is as good as one could expect from a fifteen-year-old film.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is very good for a film of this genre. Although the soundtrack - featuring Harry Connick Jr. - was significant enough to be released on its own, this is very much a dialogue-based film, and thus there is little surround output. For similar reasons, the subwoofer is rarely used. Still, all the audio has been mixed excellently, with all dialogue very clear, and background music/atmosphere providing the required ambience.

Features

For a single-disc DVD, extras here are very good indeed. First, we have a thirty-minute documentary "How Harry Met Sally", which is an excellent insider look at the film, from the way it was made to where the inspiration came from. There is also an audio commentary (presented in Dolby Digital 2.0) with director Rob Reiner, which is interesting to watch with the scenes on screen, although it does repeat quite a bit of the information that was packed into the documentary.

Further to this there is the Harry Connick Jr. music video for "It Had To Be You", a theatrical trailer (the shoddiness of which makes you appreciate the excellent widescreen film transfer), and a set of deleted scenes which are interesting, but are unlikely to be watched twice.

Conclusion

For me, "When Harry Met Sally" is a movie classic for the romantic comedy genre. Sure, Woody Allen had made films of a similar ilk many years before this was released, but "When Harry Met Sally" is much more contemporary than the ramblings of Allen, for which his fans love him but his detractors despise him. Furthermore, this is a film that is not only as poignant as it is funny, but can be enjoyed in equal measures by men and women alike.

Much credit must go to the casting director, as Crystal is superb as the cynical Burns, who goes from struggling to have a mature monogamous relationship, to becoming depressed after the breakdown of his marriage. Meg Ryan - in her first major movie role - is perfect in the part of Sally, the beautifully innocent young woman learning the hard way about relationships, mindful of her body-clock ticking. Also excellent are Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher as Harry and Sally`s respective friends who - seemingly by a stroke of luck - fall for each other and show the film`s main characters how simple it can be to find "the one".

"When Harry Met Sally" is a must-see film which has repeat-viewing value, as there are simply too many subtleties to take in on one viewing. The script is superb, combining humour and poignancy, and the acting is excellent.

Highly recommended.