Rent When Harry Met Sally (1989)

One of the classic Rom Coms - When Harry Met Sally review by JD

Billy Crystal is wonderful. His character is ruthlessly cold and calculating but he does it with such a dry wit that it is endearing and funny. Meg Ryan does the famous fake orgasm in cafe scene with more guts than many would manage. This is a must see classic. Having said that it is a bit dated in the filming and direction and the acting is sometimes a bit theatrical. It is a good laugh and I'm glad I saw it.

Classic RomCom - When Harry Met Sally review by GI

This is still one of the loveliest and funniest of romcoms and its clever avoidance of cliché makes it still a refreshing film to sit and watch even after you've seen it so many times. The beautiful autumnal scenes and views of New York are neatly balanced to be interpreted as romantic or symbolic of loneliness picking up on the emotions of the two central characters played by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. Being single and thirty-something is viewed here as being trapped in a wilderness where only true love can reveal the way out and the journey of the two and indeed to a lesser extent their two friends (Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher) shows the difficulty in recognising where your true happiness lies. Harry (Crystal) and Sally (Ryan) meet as two young people just leaving University when they share a ride to New York together. On the journey they disagree and annoy each other mainly over Harry's assertion that men and women can never be friends because sex always gets in the way. Years later they meet again and having both recently ended a relationship they become friends but resist the obvious love that each of them has for the other until one day.....! With a great script and of course a very famous and still uproariously funny scene in a restaurant this is a film that is heart warming, hilarious, and one to watch on a cold evening snuggled in front of the fire and if you've never seen it?...well you need to asap.

Superior Romcom (spoiler) - When Harry Met Sally review by Steve

Slight, but attractive relationship comedy which owes a huge debt to Woody Allen- with the New York locations, the jazz score and the droll insights on the great game of love. Director Rob Reiner and scriptwriter Nora Ephron ostentatiously adopt Annie Hall (1977) as a model.

Indeed Billy Crystal, as the acerbic pessimist and Meg Ryan as the fluffy control freak appear to channel Woody and Diane Keaton. At the time all this was welcome as Allen was in his Ibsen period and had lost his audience. Whereas this was a critics' favourite and a box office success.

Yet it feels superficial in comparison; like a sequence of comic sketches drawn from magazine articles on the dating rituals of single metropolitan thirty-somethings. Harry and Sally meet occasionally over many years and though attracted to each other, sense they are not destined to be together.

There's a Hollywood ending, but it's welcome, and actually quite emotional. The observations are mostly astute. The famous scene in the delicatessen is hilarious (though out of character for such a fastidious character!) Sure, this is derivative, but still a superior romcom.