The Boundaries of Friendship and Love as Seen Through Harry and Sally in the Movie When Harry Met Sally!

The movie “When Harry Met Sally” explores the boundaries of love and friendship through the relationship between Harry and Sally, asking the question of whether friendship is possible between men and women. It’s a romantic comedy that tells a touching story through the humor and affection of two unique characters.

 

Can true friendship exist between men and women? Can’t there be friends between men and women as long as there’s alcohol and nights out? We argue about this all the time. Because as long as there’s sex involved, we can’t resolve this thorny issue with any clarity. I don’t think this idea is a remnant of a patriarchal society. In fact, alcohol and nights out offer us endless possibilities. I want to use “When Harry Met Sally” to talk about this issue, which may be clichéd and old-fashioned, but which makes our friendships strained.
Love. Who said it? Love is perhaps the most beautiful thing that can happen between people. People fall in and out of love all the time. We think of love as a pretty sounding, happy emotion, but there’s nothing cheesy about it. Just as the word love contains the word separation, it also contains a vicious quality that can make people endlessly stupid and cowardly. Love blinds us. When you’re in love, it’s hard to see past the hormonal rush to the beanstalk. Just as chocolate is both sweet and bitter, love is also painful. So why do we try to make love? Eun-Kyo said, ‘Do you know why high school girls sleep with boys? ……. ‘ I said, ‘Because I’m lonely.’ That’s right. We are lonely. We want to be recognized by a complete stranger, not family or friends, and we want to shake off our loneliness. We struggle to love, even if it means muddying the waters with pity or possessiveness. People who are still searching for the right person in this busy modern world. I think love is one of the most beautiful things that people can do, and I think the movie When Harry Met Sally captures this in a cute way using the genre of romantic comedy. I still believe in fate. I believe that no matter how far I wander and how far I go, my destiny will be waiting for me one day.
For me, romantic comedies are the most precious genre. It allows me to feel vicariously satisfied when I’m tired of reality. And I think it’s a genre that combines the genres of romance/melodrama and comedy. How can it not be lovely when two rising forces meet? My professor said that there is something wrong with people who don’t love noir or road movies, but I dare to say that there is something wrong with people who don’t love romantic comedies.
The enduring popularity of romantic comedies is proof that there are a lot of people like me out there. Lonely people. People who want to be loved. People who want to find a partner who doesn’t mind them being themselves, who doesn’t mind them being themselves, who wants to take a break from all the hard work.
Among these love movies, I prefer romantic comedies to melodramas because they are refreshing. Melo has the power to tug on your heartstrings. Just as I reach for a tub of vanilla ice cream and Bridget Jones’s Diary when I’m feeling down in the dumps, watching a sad melo can be exhausting for someone who doesn’t have the heart for it. I think romantic comedies are very different from melo in terms of the intensity of the conflict and the basic flow and emotion. To me, melodramas have an autumnal feel, while romantic comedies have a springtime vibe.
In terms of conventions, this movie doesn’t fall out of that category. When Harry Met Sally doesn’t have any big, shocking events. The most shocking event in the entire movie is that Harry and Sally have sex. But it’s the most important turning point in the movie. The fact that they’ve been flirting for the entire runtime is just a symptom, and the real relationship begins after the sex. I think Nora Apron was asking us the question: can a man and a woman be friends?

 

 

She starts the story of love from the beginning of the movie. The style of the movie is unique. The style of the movie is unique, as it shows the life of Harry and Sally and interviews with older couples who seem to have nothing to do with Harry and Sally. It’s like a Woody Allen movie where two unrelated plots meet at the end, and it’s not until the end of the movie that we see Harry and Sally in therapy. This device would be used similarly in Mr. and Mrs. Smith not too many years later. It’s influencing a completely different genre. It’s just a little bit of style on top of the movie, and it makes When Harry Met Sally even more special.
But it’s not an interesting movie because of its style. The main characteristic of romantic comedies is their lack of characterization and exaggeration. They work best when these characters have life and drive the story. Harry is a very tired guy from a woman’s point of view. He can’t get over his divorced ex-wife and stays up late with his friends complaining about her illness. He’s so cynical and depressed that when we first meet him, he says, “I read books from the last chapter. ‘ He’s so cranky and irresponsible that after he has sex with a woman, he thinks about how he’s going to get away with it, and his excuse is that he has to go to a meeting that early in the morning, and then he runs off and never calls her again. Is there anyone worse for a girl? And yet I love him, because I know he’s actually been hurt in love, and I know he’s genuinely capable of love, and I know he’s human. He’s humorous and genuinely cares about Sally and has the presence of mind to worry about her. His personality flaws and lack of affection are redeemed by Sally’s presence in his life.
That’s not to say that Sally is perfectly normal; she’s not, and she’s obsessive about keeping things ‘separate’. She’s also a bit of a clingy person, and her sensitivity is like that of an adolescent daughter. Her character is unbelievably unique. She’s so self-conscious that she argues with someone about fake orgasms and then “fakes” an orgasm herself. Even that scene is endearing because of the loving portrayal of her throughout the movie. Otherwise, if my friend did something like that in a restaurant, I’d probably run out without paying. She’s not just a silent listener to Harry’s pain. She actively helps him and gives him advice. A true friend who is genuinely there for him. It’s a friendship that transcends gender. How can you not find these two warm, goofy characters adorable? The movie’s greatest charm and competitiveness lies in the vitality of these two characters.

 

 

The two characters’ fierce personalities are what makes the screwball aspect of romantic comedies so much fun. If either character was too stereotypical and clichéd, the movie would have been ruined. The reasons why they end up having sex are so natural that it’s almost a shame. It’s something that happens all around them, and it’s something that would have made Harry and Sally go, “Well, they deserve it. I think there are several fears that women can have about their ex-boyfriends, but what’s the worst that a woman with a full head of steam can have? Sally’s situation is the worst case scenario. She broke up with her boyfriend of many years. She wanted to start a family, and he didn’t. They parted ways amicably. But then her ex-boyfriend’s wedding invitation arrived: he didn’t want to get married and have a family, but he didn’t want to do it with me (Sally). It must have been a devastating feeling for his ego to try to make a life with a woman who was less than him. The trips you can’t take if you have kids, the sex in the kitchen you can’t have if you have kids……. Even without kids, they’d never done it.
Sally broke down at the flood of memories, and it was her dad, Harry, who held her up. The two hug, then kiss, then have sex without hesitation, until Sally realizes she’s mistakenly thinking he’s a man. Sally is happy and content, while Harry is a quiet chaos. The audience probably felt sorry for him. They go straight to their best friend and confess to each other in great detail. Then they meet again and talk, and somehow things seem to get worse. It’s a behavior that reads as friendship but is actually pride. Hiding their true feelings from each other is a cognitive assumption in romantic comedies. If they were honest with each other, the conflict wouldn’t be interesting. So, Sally’s shallow pride gets the best of her, and she gets hurt when she pretends to be cool. Harry, who is clueless, is relieved that she’s okay. At this point, there are sighs all around. This is where their conflict really begins, because Sally is hurt by the way Harry treats her, and Harry is hurt by Sally’s dismissal of him as a dead lion. They fight like they’ll never see each other again. However, they soon realize that they are uncomfortable in each other’s absence, and so, in a slightly clichéd way, Harry runs to find Sally, just as he would go to rescue a princess trapped in a tower. When they meet again, they have a big fight, confirm their feelings for each other, and then begin their new relationship with a kiss of reconciliation. As expected of a romantic comedy, the movie ends with a kiss. I think it’s one of the cute traits of the genre, rather than a predictable ending.

 

 

Relationships that are difficult in movies are still difficult in real life. It is a bit unreasonable to claim that friendship or love is black and white. Relationships are too complex and nuanced to be pinned down to a single word. They’re like a thin membrane, too delicate to be tampered with. In any case, romantic comedies are more likely to depict love than friendship because they prioritize the male-female hierarchy. They emphasize romantic feelings more than the embodiment of other emotional lines. Judging by these movies, male-female friendship seems impossible, but I know it’s not. I realize that alcohol and nightlife open up endless possibilities, but I believe that men and women can be friends. They thought they would never be anything more than friends, but ten years later, endless possibilities opened up, and after countless occasions, they fell in love. Just as I believe in fate, they were meant to be.
I feel like I’m reading an adult fairy tale. The characters are so unique, yet so relatable to what’s happening in our world right now, which makes it all the more endearing. Even if you’re 20, 30, or 35 years old, the two friends who are still struggling with their romantic feelings could be you or a friend of yours. It was a romantic comedy that left a clean aftertaste and made me feel good. It was like freshly made tofu, not too much and not too little. In the most extreme way, Harry and Sally sleep together unintentionally, but in the end, after bumping into each other all over the place, they have a completely happy ending. They kept their friendship alive through drinks and nights out. But I think the many chances they took turned their ending into love.