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When Harry Met Sally (1989)

tomatometer

91

Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 47
Fresh: 43 | Rotten: 4

Rob Reiner's touching, funny film set a new standard for romantic comedies, and he was ably abetted by the sharp interplay between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.

75

Average Rating: 6.2/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 2

Rob Reiner's touching, funny film set a new standard for romantic comedies, and he was ably abetted by the sharp interplay between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.

audience

83

liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 368,575

My Rating

Movie Info

Rob Reiner's romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as the title pair. The film opens with the two strangers, both newly graduated from the University of Chicago, share a car trip from Chicago to New York, where they are both going to make their way. During the trip, they discuss aspects of their characters and their lives, eventually deciding it is impossible for men and women to be "just friends." They arrive in New York and go their separate ways. They meet a

R, 1 hr. 36 min.

Drama, Romance, Comedy

Nora Ephron

Oct 13, 1998

Columbia Pictures

Cast

All Critics (47) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (4) | DVD (26)

Can a man and a woman be friends without worrying about having sex? Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan spend a beguiling dozen years trying to figure it out.

February 3, 2009 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Fans of Billy Crystal's amphibian qualities may be amused, but the rest of us have to contend with a slavish Woody Allen imitation.

April 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comments (4)
Chicago Reader
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Rob Reiner directs with deftness and sincerity, making the material seem more engaging than it is, at least until the plot machanics begin to unwind and the film starts to seem shapeless.

April 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comments (3)
Variety
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What Harry and Sally do -- the true focus of this often funny but amazingly hollow film -- is saunter through the romanticized lives of intelligent, successful, neurotic New Yorkers.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
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A ravishing, romantic lark brimming over with style, intelligence and flashing wit.

May 12, 2001 Comment
Rolling Stone
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When Harry Met Sally... is a sweet, embraceable comedy, a moonstruck Manhattan romance that, like a Gershwin tune, turns the sighs and glances, the spats and reconciliations, all the cliches of the heart into infectious melody.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
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Sally is special lightning-in-a-bottle stuff that every member of the production has spent precious years of their lives trying to recreate, but always failing miserably.

August 26, 2009 Full Review Source: BrianOrndorf.com | Comments (2)
BrianOrndorf.com

This is Ephron at her best.

April 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Director Rob Reiner has a killer instinct for setting up jokes and punchlines, and is vastly aided by the performances and chemistry of Crystal and Ryan, as well as crisp supporting work from Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby.

April 1, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Reiner's film breaks the romantic-comedy mold because it's not so much about Harry and Sally as it is about men and women.

January 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Reiner clearly likes his characters, and elicits sturdy performances from a proficient cast (Kirby and Fisher are especially fine as friends and confidants to the pair).

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

What keeps the momentum going, despite the story's predictability, is the dialogue and the chemistry, which makes for a high-wire act.

November 18, 2005 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | Comment
Arizona Daily Star

Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan are terrific together in one of the best romantic comedies of the 1980s.

September 16, 2004 Full Review Source: Boulder Weekly | Comment

A classic romantic comedy.

September 10, 2004 Comment
Supercala.com

Overrated nonsense about two people who would never date in real life.

September 10, 2004 Comments (8)
Lawrence Journal-World

a perfectly paced and slickly edited romp of a romance--one that revealed the secrets of what men and women really think

August 14, 2004 Comment
Reel.com
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for When Harry Met Sally

Somehow I never got around to watching this one before - weird since I've seen just about every other 80's and chick flick going. The first thing that struck me was how attractive Meg Ryan looks here compared to her recent plastic surgery look. She plays the strong willed and neurotic Sally well in this movie which

November 21, 2007
romy861

Super Reviewer

When Harry Met Sally, they didn't really like each other, but as the years went by, they kept bumping into each other. Soon enough, they start hanging out together and then something starts to happen. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan have great chemistry, and give great but hilarious performances. When Harry Met Sally is

September 8, 2011
Raymond Wieser

Super Reviewer

    1. Older Woman Customer: I'll have what she's having.
    – Submitted by Eric H (55 days ago)
    1. Harry Burns: Tomato tomato potato potato.
    – Submitted by Randi D (7 months ago)
    1. Older Woman Customer: I'll have what she's having.
    – Submitted by Mauricio R (8 months ago)
    1. Sally Albright: You see? That is just like you, Harry. You say things like that, and you make it impossible for me to hate you.
    – Submitted by Lea L (8 months ago)
    1. Sally Albright: Harry, you're going to have to try and find a way of not expressing every feeling that you have, every moment that you have them.
    – Submitted by Lea L (8 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Harry und Sally (DE)
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