When Harry Met Sally... (1989)

As much as I have always enjoyed When Harry Met Sally..., I would also slightly dismiss it as a film very much in the shadow of Annie Hall. I'm not wrong to mention that touchstone, I don't think so anyway, but revisiting this has reminded me of how wrong it is to dismiss it. This is a rom-com that easily delivers on both the rom and the com fronts, as well as providing some great autumn/winter atmosphere in a number of great sequences.

Billy Crystal is Harry Burns and Meg Ryan is Sally Albright. The two first meet as they ride-share to New York. It doesn't exactly seem like the start of any long-term friendship. Harry certainly doesn't help when he, unprompted, discusses his theory that men and women can never really be friends because of sex getting in the way. Anyway, time passes and Harry and Sally keep crossing paths, ultimately becoming friends, despite what Harry said during their first encounter. Or is there still a chance of sex mucking everything up for them?

Writer Nora Ephron may not have a filmography full of all-time greats, but she certainly managed an excellent hat-trick of star vehicles for Ryan between 1989 and 1998 (no, I'm not including Hanging Up from 2000 because, well, it's not in the same league). Director Rob Reiner, on the other hand, didn't really put a foot wrong throughout the 1980s, and he came to this after a quartet of features that could easily be said to include three absolute classics. With Ephron having mined material from Reiner and Crystal, as well as her own life, everything was aligned to create a film that allows everyone involved to have fun without ever losing focus of that vital central relationship.

While Crystal is a lot of fun here, and tends to get more of the witty lines as he provides commentary on human nature, and the important differences between men and women, the film belongs to Ryan. This is the film that firmly placed her, for a few years anyway, as "America's sweetheart", and it's easy to see why. She's cute, she does well with the comedy, she's someone to sympathise with at times, and the film allows everyone to fall completely in love with her in sync with her co-star. Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby are also great though, playing friends (Marie and Jess, respectively) who allow our leads to discuss their problems and differing perspectives. There are some other people who pop up here and there, particularly in a number of interludes that have people relating stories of how they fell in love, but most of them are surplus to requirements. We only really want to spend time with four people. In fact, we only really want to spend time with two people, but the two others orbiting their lives are funny and interesting enough to help avoid the leads being stuck in any kind of vacuum.

What else do you need to know? There's lovely cinematography from Barry Sonnenfeld, great work from Harry Connick Jr. throughout the soundtrack, and you get a handful of genuinely wonderful quotes to carry in your heart as you go through your own ups and downs in life (and that's not including THAT line, which caps the most memorable scene in the film). The only real criticism I have is the fact that Crystal gets carried away with his schtick a few too many times, which may be more of a problem for anyone who doesn't like him as much as I do, but there's very little else to pick at. It's a comforting, cosy, lovely, funny, rom-com that still sits within nudging distance of the very best.

8/10

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Noir-vember: Throw Momma From The Train (1987)

The first theatrical feature film directed by Danny DeVito, after some years spent honing his craft on TV episodes, shorts, and a few TV movies, Throw Momma From The Train hints at the knack he has for black comedy. It's not as good as most of his other films, lacking the sharp teeth he would grow less afraid of in future works, but it's still a fun idea made into a decent diversion.

Taking a cue from Strangers On A Train, this is the tale of two individuals who have murder in mind. Billy Crystal is Larry, a frustrated writer who now spends his days teaching other amateur writers how to start on their journey. He's frustrated because his ex-wife (Margaret, played by Kate Mulgrew) has made herself a name and fortune by putting her name to a novel that he wrote. Owen (Danny DeVito) is attending Larry's class, and he's frustrated by years spent living with his horrible and abusive mother (Anne Ramsey). Taking some advice from Larry, who is just trying to basically shoo him away, Owen ends up in a cinema that is screening Strangers On A Train. He thinks this is an unsubtle hint from Larry, and begins plotting to kill Margaret, which would mean Larry could then kill his overbearing mother. Nothing goes to plan, especially when it comes to the fate of the unstoppable force that is momma.

Despite the strength of the two lead performances here (Crystal and DeVito work very well off one another) there's not enough that can be done to lift the material above the script, written by Stu Silver. Silver doesn't have the most extensive filmography, and this is the only full movie he is credited with. His relative inexperience shows, although I understand that there may have been spaces left in which Crystal and DeVito could riff and work in more laughs. That's all well and good when enough magic is made to fill up the runtime, but otherwise it's not ideal.

There are also not enough great moments, or care, given to the supporting cast. Ramsey is superb, but she is required to do nothing more than be gruff and gravel-faced again (her characters is essentially Ma Fratelli in need of a full-time carer), and Mulgrew has a lot of fun saying lines and acting in ways that constantly get Crystal more and more enraged. Kim Greist is sorely underused, playing a colleague who agrees to date Crystal, and the same can be said of Annie Ross, Rob Reiner, and Oprah Winfrey (the latter two being used in amusing cameo roles).

So, in case it wasn't clear from the previous two paragraphs, the biggest thing working against the movie is the fact that it's too lightweight. In fact, the central concept, which remains a fun idea to rework, ends up feeling as if it could just as easily be slotted into any sitcom special episode. The ending doesn't help either, further showing that this is a dog barking at everyone to keep them at a distance from which they can't see a mouth full of false teeth.

DeVito shows a capability in the director's chair that would help him over the next couple of decades (with better efforts from him including The War Of The Roses, Matilda, and, my personal favourite, Death To Smoochy). It's just a shame that he didn't have enough faith in his cast, and himself, to make this darker, and potentially a lot funnier, than it is.

6/10

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