When Harry Met Sally (Reiner, 1989): Prince Charles Cinema, 6.15pm
An
appropriate annual New Year's Eve screening of this re-released
crowd-pleaser, the Prince Charles Cinema trumping the other venues
showing the movie by screening on 35mm.
Time Out review:
Too
often dismissed as the bland, cutesy, cakey-bakey face of the modern
romcom, the late Nora Ephron was an unacknowledged genius when it came
to screenplay construction – and ‘When Harry Met Sally’ remains her
finest work. This is a film where everything works: Billy Crystal and
Meg Ryan’s just-this-side-of-smug central couple, the gorgeous
photography of New York through the changing seasons, even Harry Connick
Jr’s jazz-lite soundtrack. And it’s all rooted in that flawless script.
The story is simple: Crystal and Ryan meet after college, and loathe
one another on sight. As the years pass the random meetings pile up, and
dislike turns to reluctant friendship. But, as the film insistently,
infamously asks, can men and women ever really be just friends? It’s not
just that Ephron poses these kinds of obvious-but-important questions.
It’s that she does so while circumventing romantic clichés left and
right, creating unforgettably loveable characters and throwing in some
of the most fluid, insightful and witty set-piece conversations ever
written (the diner orgasm is the most famous, but it’s the tip of a very
large iceberg). ‘Perfect’ is a big word to use about any film, but in
this case no other will do.
Tom Huddleston
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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