Taglines: Can two friends sleep together and still love each other in the morning?
When Harry Met Sally… movie storyline. Rob Reiner’s romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as the title pair. The film opens with the two strangers, both newly graduated from the University of Chicago, share a car trip from Chicago to New York, where they are both going to make their way. During the trip, they discuss aspects of their characters and their lives, eventually deciding it is impossible for men and women to be “just friends.”
They arrive in New York and go their separate ways. They meet a few years later on an airplane and Harry reveals he is married. They meet again at a bookstore a few years after that where Harry reveals he is now divorced. From that point on, the two form a friendship. Eventually their closeness results in their respective best friends (played by Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby) meeting and falling in love with each other. At a New Year’s Eve party Harry and Sally confront the complex tangle of emotions they feel for each other.
When Harry Met Sally… is a 1989 American romantic comedy film written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. It stars Billy Crystal as Harry and Meg Ryan as Sally. The story follows the title characters from the time they meet in Chicago just before sharing a cross-country drive, through twelve years of chance encounters in New York City. The film raises the question “Can men and women ever just be friends?” and advances many ideas about relationships that became household concepts, such as “high-maintenance” and the “transitional person”.
The origins of the film were derived from Reiner’s return to single life after a divorce. An interview Ephron conducted with Reiner provided the basis for Harry. Sally was based on Ephron and some of her friends. Crystal came on board and made his own contributions to the screenplay, making Harry funnier. Ephron supplied the structure of the film with much of the dialogue based on the real-life friendship between Reiner and Crystal. The soundtrack consists of standards performed by Harry Connick Jr., with a big band and orchestra arranged by Marc Shaiman. For his work on the soundtrack, Connick won his first Grammy Award for Best Jazz Male Vocal Performance.
Columbia Pictures released When Harry Met Sally… in select cities, letting word of mouth generate interest, before gradually expanding distribution. The film grossed $92.8 million in North America. Ephron received a British Academy Film Award, an Oscar nomination, and a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for her screenplay. The film is ranked 23rd on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs list of the top comedy films in American cinema and number 60 on Bravo’s “100 Funniest Movies”. In early 2004, the film was adapted for the stage in a production starring Luke Perry and Alyson Hannigan.
About the Production
In 1984, director Rob Reiner, producer Andy Scheinman and writer Nora Ephron met over lunch at the Russian Tea Room in New York City to develop a project. Reiner pitched an idea for a film that Ephron rejected. The second meeting transformed into a long discussion about Reiner and Scheinman’s lives as single men.
Reiner remembers, “I was in the middle of my single life. I’d been divorced for a while. I’d been out a number of times, all these disastrous, confusing relationships one after another.” The next time they all met, Reiner said that he had always wanted to do a film about two people who become friends and do not have sex because they know it will ruin their relationship but have sex anyway. Ephron liked the idea, and Reiner acquired a deal at a studio.
For materials, Ephron interviewed Reiner and Scheinman about their lives, creating the basis for Harry. Reiner was constantly depressed and pessimistic yet funny. Ephron also got bits of dialogue from these interviews. Sally was based on Ephron and some of her friends. She worked on several drafts over the years while Reiner made Stand By Me and The Princess Bride. Billy Crystal “experienced vicariously” Reiner’s (his best friend at the time) return to single life after divorcing comedian/filmmaker Penny Marshall and in the process was unconsciously doing research for the role of Harry.
During the screenwriting process when Ephron did not feel like writing, she would interview people who worked for the production company. Some of the interviews appeared in the film as the interludes between certain scenes featuring couples talking about how they met, although the material was rewritten and reshot with actors. Ephron supplied the structure of the film with much of the dialogue based on the real-life friendship between Reiner and Crystal. For example, in the scene where Sally and Harry appear on a split-screen, talking on the telephone while watching their respective television sets, channel surfing, was something that Crystal and Reiner did every night.
Originally, Ephron wanted to call the film How They Met and went through several different titles. Reiner even started a contest with the crew during principal photography: whoever came up with the title won a case of champagne. In order to get into the lonely mindset of Harry when he was divorced and single, Crystal stayed by himself in a separate room from the cast and crew while they were shooting in Manhattan. The script initially ended with Harry and Sally remaining friends and not pursuing a romantic relationship because she felt that was “the true ending”, as did Reiner. Eventually, Ephron and Reiner realized that it would be a more appropriate ending for them to marry, though they admit that this is generally not a realistic outcome.
When posed the film’s central question, can men and women just be friends, Ryan replied, “Yes, men and women can just be friends. I have a lot of platonic (male) friends, and sex doesn’t get in the way.” Crystal said, “I’m a little more optimistic than Harry. But I think it is difficult. Men basically act like stray dogs in front of a supermarket. I do have platonic (women) friends, but not best, best, best friends.”
Rob Reiner initially envisioned actress Susan Dey for the role of Sally Albright.[citation needed] When she declined, he later considered Elizabeth Perkins.[citation needed] He also considered casting Elizabeth McGovern.[citation needed] Molly Ringwald was almost cast, but Meg Ryan convinced Reiner to give her the role.[citation needed] Reiner’s mother Estelle and daughter Tracy both played roles in the film.
When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Directed by: Rob Reiner
Starring: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, Bruno Kirby, Steven Ford, Lisa Jane Persky, Michelle Nicastro, Gretchen Palmer, Harley Jane Kozak, David Burdick, Tracy Reiner, Kyle T. Heffner
Screenplay by: Nora Ephron
Production Design by: Jane Musky
Cinematography by: Barry Sonnenfeld
Film Editing by: Robert Leighton
Costume Design by: Gloria Gresham
Set Decoration by: George R. Nelson, Sabrina Wright-Gilliar
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: July 14, 1989
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