When Harry Met Sally Essay

Lucas Kemmer Professor Macon English 103 19 May, 2024 Not your Usual rom-com: An Authentic Journey of Love "When Harry Met Sally" is a romantic comedy that explores the intricacies of relationships, starting over in a new city, and finding what you want in life. Directed by Rob Reiner in the summer of 1989, he created a story of two main characters, Harry and Sally, who navigate the challenges of heartbreak, love, and friendship. Through its adult humor and authentic characters, the film places itself as a classic in the genre of rom-coms. The film follows Harry Burns and Sally Albright, whose first encounter is a road trip from Chicago to New York City, deciding to drive together through a mutual friend/girlfriend's suggestion. Throughout

But, the eventual happiness that comes for the two later shows us that after enough time, the feelings of heartbreak will subside into loving someone else. Most romcoms do the exact opposite, giving a straightforward approach to getting over heartbreak, skipping the difficult parts of vulnerability and insecurity. Instead of following this formula, Reiner offers moments of friendship and uncertainty for the pair. They do everything: walk in the park, talk for hours on the phone, go out to eat together, hang out with mutual friends, and Christmas tree shopping. The uncertainty of their relationship even leads the pair to set up a double date with their two friends, Jess and Marie, in which they unwittingly fall for each other and end up engaged. It was only a matter of time before Harry snaps at the engaged couple, as he recalls the same “happy” period with his ex-wife, and Sally runs into her ex Joe, who is now married. Leading the two to spiral and finally have sex, breaking the saying of the show, that “no man can be friends with a woman that he finds

Though the movie does bring comfort to my life, its depiction of Harry after a divorce, one of the greatest losses someone can experience, finding happiness again is truly touching for a genre specifically targeted toward couples. Something inherently special in “When Harry Met Sally” are personal interview segments incorporated into the film, each placed at slightly awkward placements, making you wonder about the purpose of all these seniors speaking about their relationships, friendships, and heartbreaks. But as the story of Harry and Sally progresses, it comes together to describe how as humans we want love to be straightforward: friendship, dates, love, and marriage. But true love isn't always the straight path we picture it as. Instead, as the movie shows, people must overcome their insecurities, the hurt from past relationships, and as cliche as it sounds, love themselves before they can truly love someone else. Reiner eventually ends the movie with another interview, this time with Harry and Sally only three months later, now married, and describing their