Then, proving Harry’s maxim that casual companionship among the genders cannot exist “because the sex part gets in the way,” a night of indiscretion turns them back into strangers
by Bill Chambers Meg Ryan, the Princess of Perk, gets a makeshift career retrospective this month with the DVD releases of three high-profile gigs: When Harry Met Sally. , Prelude to a Kiss, and The Doors. I’m forsaking any further mention of The Doors to focus on the first two–delightful, whimsical films, unlike The Doors–and Ryan’s romantic-comedy stranglehold. Call it the curse of the button nose: the actress, who is more talented than anyone, myself included, is willing to admit, seems out of her element by a country mile in pictures that don’t require her to meet cute and kvetch over the subsequent courtship. And now that she’s pushing 40, Ryan is becoming to chick flicks what Stallone and Schwarzenegger were to actioners after Clinton got elected: we’re sick to death of seeing her in these Nora Ephron-type movies–yet, as Proof of Life, um, proved, we also don’t want to see her in anything but.
At least by the time they’ve run out of jokes, Crystal and Ryan have taken on the nominally gritty outline of real people in love
, which, like Die Hard before it, had so many repercussions on its genre that it now gives off the weird vibe of self-imitation. The story was original enough at the time: fate repeatedly unites opposites Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Ryan) until they become the best of friends.
The film came out of discussions Reiner was having with screenwriter Nora Ephron about the core differences between men and women; this is a Woody Allen comedy minus the singular observational stance. Читать далее “The one that broke the seal for her was the Rob Reiner-directed When Harry Met Sally”