Starring Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal, Carrie Fisher, and Bruno Kirby. Directed by Rob Reiner and written by Nora Ephron.
Tagline: Can two friends sleep together and still love each other in the morning?
You know, it's funny, that tagline just about sums up the whole movie, in a way that I've never seen a tagline do before. Well done, tagline writer.
This review will be a little distorted because of the trouble I've had actually watching this film. I know, it's sad that this movie has been around for more than 20 years and I'd never seen it. That's why I was trying so hard to watch it, to see what all the fuss was about. Plus I adore Meg Ryan, so I knew it had to be good.
I checked the DVD out from the library, which might have been a mistake. The disc started skipping right around the time Harry announces his divorce, so I had to stop watching at that point. Not to be deterred, I asked our media people to clean the disc and put it back on hold. I apparently got the exact same copy back, because it made it through the scene at the game where Harry tells Jess his wife's leaving him, only to have it start skipping at the scene where Sally meets Harry in the bookstore. I took it back again and put our only other copy on hold, hoping to God it would play all the way through.
Well this was a few weeks ago. It just finally came in for me, and since I didn't start watching it until after midnight last night (I know, stupid thing to do), I figured I'd just skip the first third. I mean, I've watched the first third of the movie twice but I'd never seen the end. That might have been a mistake too. Because it's been 2 or 3 weeks since I watched the first part, I'll have to see what I can remember from that. There is some disconnect on the plot because of that, but I was up to 2am watching it as it was. I don't regret starting in the middle, only that it might have affected my opinion of the movie. Or maybe not.
A little note: this is one of those movies that my mom said I couldn't watch as a kid because I wouldn't understand it. As such, I've gone my entire life without seeing it or even knowing what it was about, other than that a young girl or teenager was too young to understand it. Really, after watching it, my mom was quite right. But still, when you spend your entire life thinking there must be something terrible in the movie, it's hard to realize it's just a romantic comedy. With a lot of talk about sex in it. lol
My first impression when I turned on the film the first time was: "Oh my gosh, I didn't think I could ever find Billy Crystal attractive, yet there he is! Look at him!!" When they are dressed to look younger, back in the 70s, they blew my socks off. I mean, Meg Ryan still looks about like she did in this movie (God that woman is gorgeous) but Billy Crystal has changed a lot. And it's not even the fact that he was older in this film--he's actually younger in this one that my other memories. But the two movies I know him best for are City Slickers and The Princess Bride. Miracle Max is not exactly your romantic lead. I was kind of afraid when I saw the actors in this movie that I wouldn't be able to believe the love story, but Billy Crystal is really perfect for the role. He's no Hugh Jackman (Kate and Leopold is one of my all-time favorite movies), but he's got that twitchy little cynical energy that perfectly fits this character. He's funny without being the macho, manly type.
I enjoyed watching the 2 characters age. It's obvious now how dated everything is, but I have to wonder if they realized it then. There was a lot of attention to detail, because I could see an obvious difference from their dress in 1983 compared to their dress in 1989. I'll be honest, I don't even really remember what people were wearing 6 years ago. I don't remember it being all the different from what people wear now. I'm sure it was, but to be able to date the clothing by half-decades--that's quite impressive.
Meg and Billy worked really well together. Meg Ryan is one of my favorite actresses ever. She's so adorable and quirky and funny and so loving. She brings such life to all of her characters and I love her for it. In fact, she's one of the main reasons I went to see The Women, a movie that came out recently containing a sort of reunion of former lead actresses. Her quirky humor combined with Billy Crystal's quick wit was a joy to watch. He doesn't sweep her off her feet like some of her other romantic leads do, but you can see how the two of them are perfectly matched. At least in the movie. :)
One of the things I didn't like about this movie was how slowly it went about resolving the romance between them. Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby were wonderfully amusing and well-matched as the sidekick romantic storyline. But when their storyling started and ended in a matter of minutes, I was left disappointed that Harry and Sally were still pretending not to love each other. Then they finally slept together and I was happy. Except that Harry displayed all the tell-tale signs of being uncomfortable and wanting to bolt, and I knew things wouldn't work out the way I wanted. Sally was highly affronted--which she had every right to be--but Harry tried to put it in the past and pretend it never happened. I could see when she told him it was a mistake over dinner that he was genuinely happy to put it behind them. But she was more hurt by his willingness to ignore it so easily than she was by his speedy escape that morning. He quite sealed his doom in that moment.
And then he was trying to be sweet and loving and she was ignoring him. I can understand how you wouldn't want to be hurt by someone like that, but considering how quickly they hugged and made up after an argument earlier in the movie, you'd think she would see sense and at least let him say his piece. Especially if she's mad that he doesn't love her and yet he keeps leaving her funny messages where he sings karaoke to her (adorable!). I suppose she was right to give him his space because he seemed to need that time to think to realize that he really did want her forever.
Which plays out as he dashes across town (literally) to meet her and she tries desperately to leave a party that she can't stand to be at alone. He sees her, tells her he loves her, and she pushes him away. Then he spouts this wonderful line explaining just how much he really loves her and ends with, "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible." Soooo sweet! But she just brushes it off, saying some nonsense about not being able to hate him when he says stuff like that. I was hoping for more of something like, "I love you too Harry! I've loved you for ages and I was just mad that you didn't love me and now we can be happy together!" I mean sure they kissed and made up, but it wasn't the glorious ending I was hoping for after all this time of knowing they were meant to be together.
I also found the ending a little abrupt. It was cute and a good way to tie in all the documentary couples that were sprinkled throughout the movie, but I actually watched about 3 minutes of the credits, waiting for extra scenes to be stuck in there. You know how some movies will have a sort of epilogue play during the credits? Well I felt I needed one of those to give me closure. Unfortunately I didn't get one, so I ended up feeling like something was still wanting from the film.
I realize that I am giving a less-than-stellar review to a film that many have claimed to be their favorite movie of all time. I apologize. I love the happy endings to be perfect and clear-cut, and I don't like to have to sludge through a lot of nonsense to get there. Not that there was a great deal of nonsense in the movie; I just felt that they could have gotten together after they slept together, or even way before that, and I would have been satisfied. Of course, then you lose the whole point of the movie, which was captured so perfectly by that tagline: "Can two friends sleep together and still love each other in the morning?"
One of the reasons the movie was hard for me to watch was their time of separation at the end. It was Christmastime and they were alone and both suffering for it, but Sally wouldn't talk to him. I really related to Harry at this point. I spent October through the beginning of January by myself last year because my husband was out to sea. It was horrible. You can't even imagine what it's like to spend the entire holiday season--Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, your wedding anniversary, and New Year's--by yourself until you've actually been through it. That was after my husband came home 3 days before Christmas the year before. We haven't spent the holiday season together since 2005. It's really hard. At least in '08 I had his homecoming to look forward to. Last year, I was just miserable. Why should I put up a tree if there's no one else here to enjoy it? Why should I put out Christmas decorations if I'll just have to put them away later? Why should I have to get people presents if I'm not even going to celebrate Christmas with anyone? and on and on. I ended up having an excellent Christmas day celebration with some friends, but the time leading up to that (and even afterwards) was a really trial for me. Our wedding anniversary is December 29th (not to mention that the anniversary of when we started dating is November 29th), so having to spend that alone on top of everything else was pure torture.
As I said, I felt Harry's pain at the end of the movie. Hearing the Christmas songs, seeing the snow and the trees and seeing him sitting alone, feeling the agony of loneliness... I know how that feels. Sure, the reasons were different, but it doesn't hurt any less. When Sally jumped into his arms on New Year's, I was actually slightly bitter and jealous. I said to the screen, "Do you know how much I wish I could have done that? That my husband would have just appeared out of nowhere to make it all better? You'd better feel happy!" I guess that may have tainted my experience. I almost felt like crying when I saw Harry walking along the streets by himself because that's such a horrible experience, spending Christmas alone when you wish with your whole heart that you could be spending it with the one you love. I couldn't fully appreciate what Sally was going through because I was feeling so upset for Harry. Again, it just felt like everyone would have been saved a whole lot of grief if they had just been able to admit that they loved each other at first. Oh well, it's not my movie.
I enjoyed the film overall. Meg and Billy were perfectly humorous and quirky together, and I felt there was some great humor in there. As a romantic film, I probably wouldn't rank it among my top 10. I won't be pulling it out whenever I need a pick-me-up because I do feel that the happy, romantic part is too long in coming. Still, for the joy it gave me while I watched it, I give it 4 rainbows.
Rating (out of 5 rainbows and ponies): 4 rainbows
Conclusion: HAPPY ENDING
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