Sorry! 'When Harry Met Sally...' is actually the perfect New Year's Film
I think we'll all have what she's having.
Happy 2021 to all of our loving, doting subscribers! What a year 2020 has been-- painful, strange, maybe even cathartic? Now that we’ve all gotten over our fears that we would wake up and it would still be last year, it’s time to reflect on all that 2020 has given us. Like this newsletter! And the 5 (five) separate times that I (Annabelle) watched my favorite rom-com of all time. I’m talking about the seminal classic, of course, When Harry Met Sally... Which is wonderful for a variety of reasons, but most importantly, for being one of the only rom-coms to center around and properly do New Year’s Eve.
Just so that we can get this out of the way, New Year’s Eve is my favorite holiday. Always has been, always will be. It’s everything I could ever want in a celebration. At its core, New Years’ is about dressing up in sparkly outfits with those you love, getting drunk, going to parties, and kissing strangers, long-time lovers, or friends. There’s no pressure to spend time with family, and the food that is provided pulls from the 3 most important food groups: appetizers, desserts, and cocktails(both alcoholic and shrimp). That is my ideal night! I’m not one of those girls that gets super annoying and weird about her birthday, but I am that girl who gets super excited about New Year’s.
Beyond the surface level, I love New Year’s because I am obsessed with endings. I don’t mean that in the way that I want everything to be tied up with a perfect little bow, I mean that I am completely enamored with the idea of things coming to a close. Yes, it is a fresh start, which is always exciting, but more than that it gives meaning to the past year of your life. Things are special because they end. That is why the ending of When Harry Met Sally… that final New Year’s Eve declaration, the last line that stays with you, is the perfect ending to any rom-com, or any film ever, actually. The final scene provides not just an ending to the movie, and to Harry and Sally’s decade-long friendship, but also communicates the treasure of falling in love with someone who has been there all along.
First things first, I would like to say that if you are thinking to yourself anything that is related to Woody Allen or Annie Hall I would like you to stop that, please! Seriously! I am sick and tired of hearing something I love so dearly be compared to the walking travesty that is Woody Allen, so if you are going to comment on the “similarities” or whatever, kindly do not and show yourself the door.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the plot, here’s a quick recap. In the late 70s, Harry and Sally carpool together from the University of Chicago to start their new lives in New York. Harry is the boyfriend of one of Sally’s friends, and at first interaction, they cannot stand each other. Sally believes that Harry is trying to make a pass at her, and Harry goes on this ridiculous theory that men and women can’t be friends. This is stupid and untrue, by the way, but we’re not going to get into that now.
Over the years, we watch Harry and Sally continue to run into each other until finally, they become real friends. And what a beautiful loving friendship it is! They go to dinner and museums together, they watch Casablanca together at night over the phone, they talk to each other about the relationship problems they are having in their lives. It is all so effortless and easy. When they both do not have dates to New Year’s Eve parties, they go together. This is important to note.
well said, Fletcher!
Throughout their friendship, the movie works to establish the romance and love that surrounds New Year’s Eve. While other rom-coms may focus on Valentine’s day, or Christmas as the premier romantic holiday, When Harry Met Sally… provides us with several sparkler-ladden December 31sts. At the first New Year’s party Harry and Sally attend together, they dance together and have a quick peck of a New Year’s kiss, more out of obligation and tradition than out of actual feelings for each other. It is still an absolutely sweet and adorable kiss, but in the way that you would kiss your friends.
In the final scene of the movie, Sally is devastated because after sleeping with Harry one night, she feels that their friendship is ruined. She accompanies the glorious Carrie Fisher and her husband Bruno Kirby to the very same New Year’s Eve party that they all attended with the company of Harry the year before, but for Sally, this is too much because the idea of not kissing someone… well…
we’ve all been there girl
Finally, just as the clock is about to turn, Harry declares his love for Sally in probably the best ending declaration monologue of all time, save for perhaps Bridget Jones’ Diary. (If you want to see the full monologue and read the re-written versions we wrote to our middle school and celebrity crushes, by the way, you can do so here, where we went much more in-depth) But after the glitz and glamour of the New Year and a new love, it is the final line of the film is what cements it into rom-com history. When Harry and Sally finally pull apart from each other at midnight, “Auld Lang Syne” begins to play. Harry remarks that he has never understood the meaning of that song or why they play it at New Year’s, to which Sally has the perfect response. “Anyway, it’s about old friends.”
To me, this is precisely what makes New Year’s so special- the notion of something ending, but at the same time, everything remaining the same. As the year ends, so does Harry and Sally’s friendship, for they both realize that they want more than that, and have wanted more than that for a long time. Yet, nothing changes because Harry and Sally continue to feel towards each other what they have felt all along-- The purest, truest love, that was cultivated and grown, rather than found.
so true!
The thing that makes When Harry Met Sally… so special is that nothing was instantaneous for them. There were so many signs that they should not be together. From the very first scene of the movie, Harry tells Sally she is high maintenance for the way that she orders her dinner at the diner. Sally disputes this and they get into an argument. They’re very different people. They have very different opinions and views on many different things. Yet this does not matter, because of course it doesn’t.
Their love for each other expands the more time they spend together. They spend hours in Central Park, walking around with nothing to do but pay attention to each other. They make up silly voices in the Met but neither is afraid of looking stupid in front of the other. They argue about Casablanca the entire movie but never watch it with anyone else. The more time you spend with someone, and the better you know them, the easier it becomes to love them fully and completely.
When I was younger, my father told me that living is in the little things. It’s not about what job you do, how much you accomplish, or what your legacy is. It’s the feeling of swimming in the ocean, planting tomatoes in your garden and getting to watch them grow. I believe that perhaps love is the same way. With the very little knowledge that I have about such things When Harry Met Sally… has shown me that this is true. Right? It must be. I really hope so.