Can Men & Women be friends?
Harry:Men & women can't be friends without Sex becoming an issue.
Sally:That is not true... I have several men friends. I don't sleep with them.
Harry:But Sex is what they have in mind, when they think of you.
...
Sally: Too bad we cannot be friends. You are the only one I knew in New York!
Harry meets Sally... when Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) agrees to give her friend Amanda Reid's ( Michelle Nicastro) boyfriend Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) a ride to New York city one night in 1977. She plans to be a Journalist & he a political consultant.
It is instant hatred at first sight. Harry turns out to be a male-chauvinistic smart-ass who seems to have a low opinion about the fairer sex. Sally turns out to be too snobbish & classy to Harry's liking.
After a night long ride from hell... they separate acrimoniously on reaching New York
One Year Later...
Harry & Sally meet again at La Guardia airport NJ. This time Sally is with her boyfriend Joe... has forgotten the name of her friend (Amanda) but remembers Harry. How could she forget that night journey?
They meet again on the plane... when Harry somehow manages to sit next to her & Sally bursts out laughing on hearing - Harry is about to marry an attorney. 'You are getting married?'.. LOL
Now Harry seems to be following Sally wherever she goes. Sally is too happy when she finally gets rid of him.
3 years later...
They meet again in a book store, where Sally is working along with her friend Marie (Carrie Fisher). Sally has broken her relationship with Joe who refused to marry her after having a live-in relation with her all these years. Harry has been dumped by his wife & he is having a divorce in hand. Heart broken & sporting a beard.
After meeting a couple of times more at odd locations... finally they become Friends!
Harry: Okay... Let us be friends. Just friends.
Sally:But you said... men cannot just be friends with women.
Harry:Did I say that?
A couple of years later...
Now Harry & Sally can be seen together most of the time. Best chums helping each other through their heart-breaks. Despite the suspicions of their best friends Jess (Bruno Kirby) & Marie...No they are not having an affair! In fact they are trying hard to date others, always failing in their efforts to do so.
Jess (to Harry): You told her all that!!!
Harry:Finally I have a girl with whom I can bare my heart as it is without worrying about how it will affect our relationship
...
Jess:Is she attractive? Does she have a great personality?
Harry:Yes... she is attractive & has a great personality.
Jess: I mean.. if a girl is unattractive you would say she has great personality
Harry:She is both attractive & has a great personality.
Jess:And you haven't slept with her!!!
If girls cannot stand straight-forward, no-words-mincing & brutally honest Harry, guys find attractive but highly structured, High-maintenance Sally too much to handle (Great date... but how to spend a lifetime with her?). Their attempts to date Marie with Harry & Jess with Sally... results in Jess & Marie falling for each other & getting married. But not Harry & Sally. They are careful in not letting romance spoil their friendship.
But the friendship turns to relationship when Harry sees his wife with her new husband & Sally comes to know her ex-beau is getting married to another girl! Both are scared to accept the new found romance lest it spoil the hard earned friendship. It becomes a now on, now off relationship, to the extent of both breaking their friendship.
On breaking friendship with Sally, Harry realizes what she means to him. A sensitive girl who has tolerated him all these years. Sally too realizes the value of Harry's friendship where she remembers the times she... didn't have to fake herself to gain acceptance.
What happens then on? Do Harry & Sally confess love & get married? Or just remain friends forever? Watch the movie...
What is it all About?
A heartwarming screenplay by Nora Ephron, a deft handling by comedy films director (and also co-producer) Rob Reiner spins a realistic story of friendship & love spanning 12 years between a couple so unlike each other & yet liking and loving each other.
The director breaks the story in the middle to introduce the middle-aged couples who have celebrated 3-5 decades of a successful marriage. Each couple explaining in their own words how they met, re-met, how they felt they were right for each other & what do they feel about each other after decades of marriage.
Then there is the (in)famous scene of Meg Ryan faking an orgasm in a crowded deli... which gives this otherwise clean movie 'R' rating! Meg Ryan is sweet & Billy Crystal is a witty chatter-box who at times makes you angry with his chauvinistic outlook... but other times surprises by being an understanding friend to Sally!
Can Men & Women be friends?
Surely. It is not necessary that every platonic relationship end up as a romance like Harry's or Sally's... and as Harry learns later in the movie, not all relations are based purely on physical attractions, hormones & Sex. If you find your best friend to be your true love, there is nothing wrong in it. But that doesn't mean every platonic Friendship is always equal to Love.
Having said thus, let me hasten to add that it is not easy for a guy & a girl to be friends. The whole world including the best friends & family... start thinking 'somethings cooking' on seeing a guy & girl together some 3-4 times together. Then there is the nagging doubt ... What does the other person think? Is it just friendship for him/her? Or they have something else in mind? The moment a guy finds a GF or gets married & vice versa... the friendship falls apart.
It is difficult for a guy & girl to be friends. But not impossible, if both remain true to each other, don't allow the doubts to taint the relationship & don't let the gossip take the better of them.
A great relationship is like a great Melon
