For me there is no better collaboration in the world of rom-com than Meg Ryan speaking the words of Nora Ephron, starting in one of my all time favourite films When Harry Met Sally in 1989, directed by Rob Reiner, before continuing for 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle, directed this time by Ephron herself, before concluding the pseudo trilogy You’ve Got Mail, again directed by Ephron herself. And although I personally don’t believe they ever topped their original outing in 1989, the other two are still very enjoyable and definitely worth a mention. But let’s begin, as they did, in 1989 with the classic When Harry Met Sally.

When Harry Met Sally (Dir. Rob Reiner, 1989)

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For me there is simply no better rom-com, perfectly doling out its romance, comedy and drama in large doses and equal amounts. There is no better ‘final run’, for it’s entirely built up to and wholly realistic, whilst never sacrificing the pure joy that such a moment usually instils in a viewer. There’s no better run for a director than Reiner’s 80s run, as has been exemplified in a prior article, film after film and genre after genre Reiner just made masterpiece after masterpiece – with this possibly even being the finest of the lot of them. There’s no better depressive but hilarious male lead, with Billy Crystal perfecting the modernised angle of the Woody Allen archetype of droll wit and intelligence underlining a frequently charming male lead figure – the key word again being realistic. There is no better second couple/friends, with Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher more than making a meal out of their limited time on screen. Fisher as Marie is flighty and ingenious as the exact last person you’d expect to get married, only for her to pip Sally to the post when its perhaps the thing she wants most. Kirby is excellent as Jess, similarly baffled at Harry’s witticisms and remarks, whilst also having his own deliberate contemplation's, always humorous too in their own way. To put it frankly for me there is simply no film better that When Harry Met Sally when it comes to movies of its type, whether it be romance films, comedic films, or those that gloriously combine the two. I’ve always loved this film and I know that I always will, because as soon as we fade up on that old college building and we see Sally honking her horn and Harry necking a girl he’ll soon forget, all the while hearing the first of many acutely picked jazz standards (making the film timeless in 1989 and still timeless to this day), I’m fully invested all over again, and before I know it, the swiftest 90 minutes of romance and comedy have flown by once again without a single hair out of place of scene or frame to cut. The brevity and levity of this film always astounds me to no level. It really is a genuine masterpiece of the medium and should be frequently discussed as such.

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For me the film is also one of the great depictions of loneliness, aswell as friendship. The sparring montages of Harry and Sally going about their normal routines are so astutely picked that they bring us exactly into the world of these people instantaneously. The films frank dialogue about sex, friendships and modern living are similarly timeless, even if certain revelations are not as fresh as they were in 1989. Ephron’s dialogue still bristles with humour, heart and humanity like no other writer. Making her the perfect pairing for Reiner, whose films up until 1989, and for some years after strove for greatness in that same triptych with similar success. There is however also definitely no funnier and more relatable female lead, with this film marking the first and thankfully not last collaboration between Ephron and Ryan (the reason why we’re here today). Is there a character easier to fall in love with than Sally Albright? No, but Fran Kubelick is a remarkably close second. The greatest rom-com female lead character of all time is brought to its top rank position by Reiner's direction and Ephron's incredible scriptwriting, but is cemented to no end by Ryan. Offering wit, charm and naivety in her portrayal of Sally, Meg Ryan makes the perfect rom-com lead for the perfect rom-com film. In this film Ephron sets out perhaps subconsciously the exact formula that will mould the next films she would write for Ryan to star, except also directing this time. I can’t exactly put a finger on why, but there is an absolute perfection to Harry and Sally that we don’t get with the other films, one could make the very justified argument that that’s down to Reiner’s “...magic” touch, however for me Ephron is the auteur of these trio of films and although the next two aren’t as frankly perfect, they are just as enjoyable in more than many ways.

Sleepless in Seattle (Dir. Ephron, 1993)

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Sleepless in Seattle gets the closest to recreating the lightening in a bottle combination of talent that occurred with our first film, only with many aspects just, well, not as good. Sleepless does certainly have more than its fair share of excellent moments and characters, but frequently moves into a less realistic space that I think leads to the main reason why I prefer Harry and Sally. As aforementioned this time Ephron is directing aswell as writing and although her directing is intriguing and her use of montage reflects the story being told wonderfully, her writing is certainly still her strongest suit, earning her another Oscar nomination (the films other nomination being for Best Original Song for Marc Shaiman, another return from the Harry and Sally well). Despite opening on one of the most harsh and daring, yet elegant, opening frames of all time, with Tom Hanks and Ross Mallinger at the funeral of their characters wife and mother, the film spends most of its time in  world of romantic fantasy, rather than in the branch of truth that made her first rom-com so successful, despite arguably having a narrative that would take a touch of naturalism better. The death that occurs off-screen of Maggie (played with a touching haunted quality by Carey Lowell in two very brief moments), sets us up for the crux of the film we are about to see, filled with ruminations on fate and the true nature of true love. Ryan this time plays Annie Reed, a similarly straight-forward woman like Sally, who flits in and out of bouts of pure romance and idealism. Despite the role being offered originally to Julia Roberts (thank god that didn’t work out), for me this role is for Ryan and Ryan alone. Kim Basinger, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jodie Foster and Jennifer Jason Leigh were all also reportedly offered the role, but frankly I don’t think any actress could have brought the tremendous likability that Ryan does to this role. As the plot continues in fact certain plot points are so far fetched and ever ridiculous that the film may very well have fallen apart without the pitch perfect casting that appears at absolutely every turn.

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Hanks and Malinger as Sam and Jonah Baldwin are the core of the film in the rather unconventional widow subplot, as it then collides with Ryan’s more whimsical tale of budding love with Bill Pullman’s hilarious and heartfelt turn as Walter. Hanks is terrific, with his moments of real human drama giving the film a weight that no one could have ever expected going into the film. Ryan originally wanted her then husband Dennis Quaid, for me this is another major nightmare possibility.  The entire ensemble just gets tons of great materiel to work with over and over again, with every character getting multiple great zinger lines, ranging from Frances Conroy who only appears for a very small amount of time, to David Hyde Pierce befuddled and bewildered turn, to Rob Reiner appearing again as an actor this time perfecting the cameo persona that would suit him for many future film appearances to come. Rita Wilson and Victor Garber are just as great as everybody else and the ensemble only continues and continues to pile on great talent after talent. It has been discussed many times but I still can never get over the audacity of Ephron’s structuring of this film and the concluding conceit of it, certainly a masterstroke of a concept, even if it isn’t a complete home-run in this critics eyes.

You’ve Got Mail (Dir. Ephron, 1998)

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The last and unfortunately weakest in our triple bill is this charming late 90’s film directed by Ephron and written in collaboration with her sister and frequent partner, Delia Ephron. The film is a modernisation of the classic story that began with the original Miklos Laszlo play Perfumerie, which gave way to the sensational 1963 Broadway musical She Loves Me and prior to that, the 1940 James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan film The Shop Around the Corner, Ephron’s biggest influence for this adaptation. The story is simple; a couple fall madly in love over anonymous letter correspondence, whilst hating each other in real life, both completely without the knowledge that the pen pal they adore is the colleague/rival that they hate. Ephron’s modernisation of the text, as per the title, makes this an online correspondence beginning in an “over 30’s” chat-room, and that’s really where a lot of the film’s unintentional humour comes from, with many hilariously dated conversations and internet aesthetics that make the film look today almost as period as Perfumeries’ back and forth letters. The film is in many ways a spiritual sequel to Sleepless with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan falling in love over a long distance, but the clever part is of course that they are under each other’s noses the whole time, and Ephron can’t take all the credit here (as she would be the first to admit), with the original plot being so strong to begin with, however Ephron’s adaptation is charming, funny and really quite touching in its third quarter. I have often commented that the only reason Sleepless works is because Hanks and Ryan don’t share any screen time, an opinion completely based upon the on-screen chemistry we witness in this film. I have sweetened on this point a little, but I do still feel that the whole Hanks-Ryan mythic reputation is based off a foundation of sand, as I wouldn’t point to either of these films as being glowing examples of on-screen chemistry. It certainly doesn’t compare to her all time levels of chemistry with Crystal, or even Andy Garcia in When a Man Loves a Woman or even the blending of the real life romance between herself and Russell Crowe onto the screen in Proof of Life.

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I don’t wish to put this all upon one person’s fault, however Tom Hanks just doesn’t do it for me in this film. He is relatively charming, as he always is and his love of The Godfather is a funny running gag that hits home for every man I feel. But he’s just missing something, whereas Ryan is just sublime in this. This sort of proves my theory that when Ryan is good, she can really elevate the lowest of films, not that this is the ‘lowest’ of films, but it’s certainly no masterwork in either Ephron or Ryan’s cannons. Ryan just breathes such life into this rather upsetting plotline, as I aforementioned the second act is a really bummer actually, with Ryan losing her family store and uttering such painful lines as “it’s like losing my mother all over again”. I actually feel that in this stretch, Hanks and the love story gets in the way of a sweet drama about a simply wonderful woman hitting her rock bottom. The overall plot is a little uneven too, with a few too many supporting actors for my liking, who are often given very little to do at all. The most shining example of an underwritten role is Dave Chappelle as Hank’s friends, who is barley given more than a couple of funny lines and this is one of the funniest guys on the planet. For the first hour of the film Ryan and Hanks are in other relationships, to Greg Kinear and Parker Posey respectively. Posey has always been very hit and miss with me, often finding her rather insufferable in anything not under Christopher Guest’s watchful eye. This is such an example of an insufferable Posey, but I have to blame Ephron for that, the character really isn’t given a fighting chance. Despite the film’s better moments it still just feels like an unfortunate re-hash of ideas from Sleepless, in turn re-hashing ideas from Harry and Sally. Albeit it’s still worth a watch for a wonderful and effecting Ryan role, and just to hear any words from the pen of Ephron, even if there are better Ephron’s, which there are, and even if there are better Ryan’s, which again there are.

Although these three films are often touted as the peak of Ryan’s career, I have decided to study the rest of her career and look at her other works in and out of the rom-com genre, ranging from stark drama, to sci-fi comedy to erotic thrillers. That article will be with you next week. But the collaboration of Ryan and Ephron really is a lightening in the bottle thing, with nobody ever being able to deliver Ephron’s romantic leads with more heart or compassion. And although Ephron’s collaborations with Meryl may be more repeatedly successful, there is just simply something wonderful about Ryan’s darling nature, delivering the wonderful words of our finest writers.

-         -  Thomas Carruthers