When Harry Met Sally. Movie Review. It`s All About Us
Recently I had a talk with my 14-year-old daughter. She said: “I couldn`t believe that one day all my trendy clothes and furniture will become obsolete like that stuff from the 80-s. How`s that even possible? Terrible”.
Well, everything becomes obsolete sooner or later. So do the movies. I tried to find some movies I admired when I was a teen. I couldn`t watch them. They are terrible from every angle. The style, acting, special effects, general meaning (well, the lack of it), everything was just awful. But even movies that managed to remain iconic and don`t provoke the desire to smash the screen right away, might not be tolerated by the younger generation. I know the 23-year-old guy who can not watch the 1999 Matrix because of its bad-looking CGI.
Some movies, however, can resist the relentless flow of time. They typically don`t have the best computer graphic ever because any graphic would inevitably become outdated. These movies are about human beings in relationships – probably the only thing computers can not simulate, yet.
When Harry Met Sally is one of these movies. It`s charming, mostly because of the outstanding acting by Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. The chemistry between them is indisputable and the actors managed to enrich it with very natural screen behavior. Sometimes the movie looks almost like a documentary, and it was intended by a director to have this effect. There are several interviews during the film with elderly couples. These interviews are not real in terms of real people and their stories, but they widen the essence of the film. Because of them, the story turns into something larger than just a Harry and Sally lifelong connection.
“If the legend is more interesting than life, print the legend” – was said a long ago. And this is the point.
All stories are the same, in general. A boy meets a girl, and everything starts from there as it started with Adam and Eve, Helen and Paris, Jack and Rose, you name it. Not all of these stories become classic and evergreen. But legends do because they take the randomness of life and make a story out of it. Picasso said that the difference between art and life is that art makes sense.
Movies like When Harry Met Sally make us believe that there is a sense in life. Because Harry finally met Sally and that means we can do the same too.
Tolegen Baitukenov, MovieTerra