When Harry Met Sally: 'tis the season for romcoms

 When Harry Met Sally: romance done right



Never underestimate the power of a well-written romance. It’s no big secret that When Harry Met Sally is firmly up there with The Notebook and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days as a classic autumn rom-com. I have to say it’s one of my personal favourites, so avoiding biases or romanticisations are strictly off the table today, sorry not sorry. 


When Harry Met Sally has some of those terribly cliché tropes, it’s true, but it’s definitely not a trashy romance by any means. Predictably, the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers trope is doing a lot of work in this film, and it’s also very much a slow burn romance (nearly thirteen years of slow burn, but who’s counting?). It’s a film that is very much consumable for lovers of the trashy rom-com, but it’s also a genuinely complex and mature story of two people growing as individuals. 



Audience satisfaction from When Harry Met Sally comes from the fact that both characters are developed in their own right, separate but alongside one another. In other words, Harry and Sally grow together, apart. 


They’re definitely not perfect human beings, nor are they even necessarily perfect partners, but they’ve taken the time to just exist alongside each other. They can banter and poke fun, but they know when to be serious and support each other when the going gets tough. They don’t always agree (in fact they disagree frequently), but they never belittle or disrespect the other person’s opinion. They can fight, but they can say sorry too. They value each other as friends - as people - above all else, and that’s the solid foundation from which they take their leap of faith into a serious romance. 



And it’s made clear in Harry’s New Year’s Eve love declaration that it’s not about the other person being perfect, it’s about them being real, and being really themself. For Harry and Sally, that’s possible because they’ve taken the time and space to grow into themselves. 


To be honest, that’s the very simple but incredibly elusive magic at the core of why When Harry Met Sally is such a great rom-com. It’s not afraid of being imperfect, because life is just as imperfect. Yes of course there’s an element of movie magic in the timing of the big confession at the ringing in of the New Year, but for the most part, there’s nothing about the story’s basic series of events that’s utterly unbelievable. Not that romances which are unrealistic are necessarily bad (because then we’d have to discount an awful lot of the romance genre) but it’s particularly special to see romance that is imperfect. The bar for an epic romance is high, but it’s definitely not out of sight.


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