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James Clive Matthews is the author of two books of film criticism, a reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement and blog editor for the BBC's Pocket Films site. Here he picks five romantic comedy films every home should have. Click to view Top 5 Best Romantic Comedies.
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Best Modern (When Harry Met Sally) |
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 The early 1980s saw Hollywood so obsessed with trying to create big blockbusters in the wake of Star Wars that simple romance seemed to have fallen by the wayside. All that was changed by a decades-spanning tale of unlikely love in New York, as 1989's When Harry met Sally revitalised the genre for a whole new generation. |
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With Billy Crystal as the fast-talking, sexually confident, philosophical male lead and Meg Ryan as the slightly ditzy female, the influence of Woody Allen’s Annie Hall reverberates throughout. Yet where Allen’s comedies often saw the relationships themselves take second place to wry observations and witty asides, here the relationship is always to the fore.
That Harry and Sally will end up together may seem inevitable from the start, even though when they meet Harry is locked in a passionate kiss with another woman and they end their initial encounter hating each other. But it is the journey to this inevitability that is always the focus – a first kiss that doesn’t happen until almost an hour and a half in, and that almost destroys the entire relationship before it has even properly started, twelve years after the pair first meet.
At the heart of the film lies a contention that has since passed into common folklore, repeated countless times, often by people unaware of the fact that it was popularised by something as unprofound as a mere film: “Men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way”.
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After their initial dislike, followed by two gaps of several years, the pair set out to prove the maxim wrong. They are merely two newly single young(ish) people of the opposite sex, simply trying to have a friendship. Thanks to their early dislike – and their utterly different personalities, with Harry as the cynical serial dater and Sally as the idealistic monogamist – neither can see the inevitable beginning to happen, and therein lies the fun.
It is a set-up that has been repeated countless times in the last two decades, from Four Weddings and a Funeral through any number of more bland Hollywood RomComs, often starring the pretty starlet of the moment.
Meg Ryan quickly built a career out of her Sally persona – Billy Crystal was not so lucky, his film career swiftly faltering to the extent that he became best known as the host of the Oscars, though rarely as the star of a major motion picture. Yet here both are at the height of the comedic powers, from Crystal’s wry observations on life, plucked straight from the Woody Allen school of standup but without the irritation factor, through Ryan’s infamous faked orgasm in the diner scene, now one of the most famous in film history.
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Escapism ... And No Orcs |
| Though Crystal is hardly classic leading man material, somehow in partnership with Ryan both combine to form one of the most likeable screen couplings in Hollywood history – the very unlikeliness of their relationship all part of the charm. Because, after all, although romantic comedies are supposed to be predictable, where’s the fun if there’s not a little bit of uncertainty? |
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 As Sally initially tries to rebuff Harry as he attempts to win her back after a break-up, she tells him that life isn’t like the movies - and that’s why we all secretly love movies like this, where everything eventually works out the way it should. In real life, Harry and Sally would never have made it.
And there, in a nutshell, is precisely what romantic comedies are for. They're the fantasy where everything works out - the escapism of cinema at its height, but with not an orc or a Jedi in sight. |
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