We’ve had an almighty slew of romantic comedies over the last few decades. Some have been pretty damn good (like 500 Days of Summer) and many have been goddamn awful.
But the pinnacle of the romcom genre has and will forever be When Harry Met Sally….
It’s been 30 years since the film was released and it set the bar for romcoms ever since. But in its brilliance, When Harry Met Sally… inadvertently – and unintentionally – ruined the genre it celebrated.
Whereas most romcoms run at a breakneck pace by squeezing the protagonists’ initial “meet-cute” moment to the climatic “you’re the one for me!” finale in a heavily compressed timeline, When Harry Met Sally… unfolds over a decade.
This stretching of time allows both Harry and Sally to believably mature so that when they reconnect at 31, their relationship takes on a different dynamic because they’re completely different people compared to when they first met as 21-year-olds.
Nora Ephron’s fantastic script is given time to remain grounded and naturalistic its exploration into the relationship between men and women is. It also helps that both Harry and Sally are characters who can believably exist in the real world.
But the biggest reason why When Harry Met Sally… set the bar for romcoms is because of how every subsequent film in the genre took inspiration from it.
Nearly every male protagonist appears to be modeled after Harry’s cynical yet funny personality; female protagonists either have Sally’s optimism or are modeled to be the opposite to the male lead; supporting characters are quirky and provide comedic relief; and there’s always a sweeping romantic gesture at the climax not unlike Harry professing his love to Sally.
There’s nothing wrong with emulating When Harry Met Sally… or taking inspiration from it. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery after all. But instead of elevating the quality of romcoms, the movie all but ruined the genre because all subsequent films tried to essentially be the same thing.
Rather than build off When Harry Met Sally…, romcoms instead rehashed the same elements over and over again in an attempt to get their own “I’ll have what she’s having” moment to mixed success.
In a weird way, When Harry Met Sally… was almost too good because it set a benchmark that’s been too high for any subsequent romcom to reach. The genre hasn’t been able to get better because movies are still struggling to match it, let alone surpass it.
Every romcom tried to have what When Harry Met Sally… was having in 1989, but none have been able to handle what it brought to the menu.