When Harry Met Sally Essay

In the novel Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre author Tamar Jeffers McDonald defines a romantic comedy as " a film which has its central narrative motor a quest for love, which portrays this quest in a light-hearted way and almost always to a successful conclusion." For decades perhaps one of the most celebrated examples of a romantic comedy is the film When Harry Met Sally directed by Rob Reiner and written by Nora Ephron. Although When Harry Met Sally contains many elements of a generic romantic comedy, the originality in the narrative and innovations to the classic boy meets girl format elevates the film placing it in the age of refinement in the romantic comedy genre. This deviation from the basic romantic comedy narrative format

One aspect that accomplishes this is that the film does not attempt to show the thoughts of the characters with any eye-line matching shots or other techniques which would place the audience in the perspective of a character. Instead, the film makes the audience a third party perspective, an observer to watch the events unfold as the couple's relationship develops similar to the style of a recording of an event in a documentary film. This aspect of the film allows for the audience to follow the relationship through time as seen in the beginning of the film when the protagonists have different encounters with multiple years in between. Instead of allowing the audience to predict the progression of Harry's and Sally's relationship, When Harry Met Sally has a slower paced relationship progression keeping the audience guessing in how it will pan out. Through this slow progression, the film also allows the story between the two characters to develop at a more realistic speed instead of a sudden devoted love found in many romances. Also, by placing the audience in a observational role the film creates situational irony, showing the characters are perfect for each other but they just don't know it yet as the romance develops only after a long friendship. Another aspect of a documentary film When Harry Met Sally includes are fake interviews of various couple displayed throughout the film. When conceptualizing the film, Reiner interviewed various couples on the story of how they met and the progression of their relationships, he then incorporated these real life stories into the script and hired various actors to play the couples. (Passafiume, www.tcm.com) The decision to include these interviews of several couples throughout the film created the impression that the film was more of an exploration of all the different types of relationships between men and