An Emphatic "Thank You" to Nora Ephron

 

I once spent the entirety of my time on a YMCA exercise bike watching When Harry Met Sally off my phone screen. 

My desire to watch it was insatiable--I had just been stood up for a date, feeling angry and desperately needing to channel my frustration into 90 minutes of blood, sweat, tears, and Meg Ryan. The brightness was turned up, I had the captions on, Harry Connick Jr. blasted through my earbuds, and I couldn't help but smile and giggle the entire, sweaty time. All signs of anger vanished. The old woman on the bike next to me even closed her Danielle Steel novel and watched with me. I guess she'll have what I'm having. 

When Harry Met Sally is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest (slow burn) romantic comedy of all time, and it's a best friend whenever you need. Bad breakup? When Harry Met Sally. Stressed about exams? When Harry Met Sally? Feeling existential? When! Harry! Met! Sally. I cannot emphasize this enough. 

The magic of When Harry Met Sally is the realness of it. It is the brain child of two geniuses--Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner--essentially acting in conversation with one another. The conversations in the film are comprised of real life dialogues experienced by Ephron and/or Reiner. Reiner and Billy Crystal used to talk to each other on the phone while watching television just like Sally and Harry; Rob Reiner was going through a messy divorce, his pessimism molded into the character of Harry. Even he and Ephron butted heads about the relationship of sex between men and women. Reiner believed a man and a woman couldn't just be friends, the sex would always get in the way; Ephron argued that men and women could be friends because she had male friends. Sound familiar? Even my favorite scene--"I would like to partake in your pecan pie" was improvised by Billy Crystal. You can catch Meg Ryan briefly glimpsing over to Rob Reiner who, off camera, tells her to just go with it. Movie magic at its finest.