As you know, The Toast takes an extremely high view of When Harry Met Sally, and would even go so far as to call Bruno Kirby the John Cazale of comedy (died too young, appeared in almost exclusively perfect movies).
And yet there is a flaw. A single flaw, but a flaw nonetheless, and one that niggles at me more and more every time that I see it. Consider the following two scenes, both of which are set in a restaurant.
Notice the following similarities: waitresses who come by and take their orders, surrounding patrons, the sounds of people having dinner and talking with their friends. Now compare it with this scene (starts around 29:35, runs until 31:30):
The restaurant is entirely empty. There are no other diners, no waiters, no ambient noises of forks clinking against plates or of glasses being cleared or of nearby conversation. There is nothing but silence and darkness, and a mysterious bank of yellow flowers that first appear to Sally’s left and then immediately behind her. What deserted restaurant is this? Is there some sort of Brigadoon situation going on? It feels like an empty soundstage — it feels ominous. How did they get there? How will they get out?
Tags: movies, single flaws, when harry met sally
The restaurant is empty because they’ve just randomly met in a bookstore and gone for coffee in the middle of the afternoon, it’s not meant to be a busy lunch/dinner scene.
The flowers are outside the windows — when the shot is of her from the side, the flowers are seen through the window beside her, but you can see in the wide shots that there’s another window behind her, which presumably also has flowers, since the other windows do, and which would appear directly behind her in the straight on shots.
You are taking all of the fun out of this.
Sorry!
I forgive you. *places arm around you* You will never have to be out there [in the comments section] again.
The only flaw is that people quote that Young Harry line about men and women being unable to be friends as if it’s gospel truth rather than words out of the mouth of an asshole.
but really that’s a flaw in the people who watch the movie rather than the movie itself… maybe we can get some kind of legal-type movement going that forces movies to be responsible for the audiences they attract?
Reasonable People vs. When Harry Met Sally
“Nine extra floors.”
Sorry, that has nothing to do with anything, I just am incapable of stopping this video and therefore I am in love with that couple again.
How dare you post a video of the entire movie in the middle of a work day. How DARE you. I’m Canadian, by the by.
Is your username a Dan Mangan reference?!? (wait have I already asked you this?)
Why, yes it is! And I don’t know! Maybe?
My boyfriend asked me that question when we were still just two anonymous OKC profiles, so being asked by you feels delightfully and oddly romantic.
Haha! That’s great!!
I’m shipping you two in my head right now.
Also I am also a Canadian at work and I am maybe listening/watching the whole damn movie now…
It’s the whole movie! I haven’t gotten out of bed yet! Cuz it’s the whole movie!!
Let’s go for a stretch interpretation here and assume that the restaurant symbolizes relationship clarity. In the first scene, when they are younger, there’s bustle and noise and a lot of different people and Sally has a laundry list of needs – Harry and Sally rightly diverge. In the second scene they are both brokenhearted and the restaurant is quiet and empty – the only conversation is theirs and they are finally able to focus on establishing their relationship together.
And I’ll probably google this later and Rob Reiner will be quoted somewhere as saying oh yeah, we forgot to hire extras that day.
There are two continuity errors in this movie that drive me INSANE every time I watch it. The drawings when they’re playing Pictionary vary drastically between shots and it’s so distracting. Also once I noticed how the water levels change in their glasses during the failed/ultimately really successful blind date scene I could never unsee it.
Drives me nuts. Perfect movie though.
There is also the part where they leave the University of Chicago on the south side of the city and drive south on Lakeshore drive past downtown (as if they are coming from north of the city.
Yes. This. In every Chicago movie. I’m looking at you, My Best Friend’s Wedding!
Yes. This. In every Chicago movie! I’m looking at you, My Best Friend’s Wedding.
I have to ignore these kinds of logistical impossibilities in Boston-based movies, or my head will explode.
I just read the “goofs” section for the movie on IMDB, and there are surprisingly few errors considering just about every movie suffers from continuity errors thanks to the difficulty of restaging a scene multiple times on multiple days. However, this error really tickles me and makes me love the movie even more (if possible):
When Sally is typing on her computer, apparently she is typing the longest word in the history of modern language, because her fingers never touch the space bar.
I just read the "goofs" section for the movie on IMDB, and there are surprisingly few errors considering just about every movie suffers from continuity errors thanks to the difficulty of restaging a scene multiple times on multiple days. However, this error really tickles me and makes me love the movie even more (if possible):
When Sally is typing on her computer, apparently she is typing the longest word in the history of modern language, because her fingers never touch the space bar.
Wow, Meg Ryan gives that speech such a good read. Like the pause right after she says, “So I said ‘I guess it’s over’, and he left.” Also there’s a little hiccup/voice break earlier around “I spy a family”, too. There’s a reason that she was Queen of the RomCom in her day.
Oh my god, it’s the whole movie. The amount of willpower I am showing to NOT WATCH IT RIGHT NOW AT WORK is immense.
Also I love the way Meg Ryan says “I’m DIFFICULT” when she’s sobbing. Also the way she just throws tissues over her shoulder and lets them land wherever they land.
Oh my god, it's the whole movie. The amount of willpower I am showing to NOT WATCH IT RIGHT NOW AT WORK is immense.
Also I love the way Meg Ryan says "I'm DIFFICULT" when she's sobbing. Also the way she just throws tissues over her shoulder and lets them land wherever they land.
I have to ignore these kinds of logistical impossibilities in Boston-based movies, or my head will explode.