When Harry Met Sally

When Harry Met Sally takes the conventions of a classic from-hate-to-love story and flips them on their head, creating a unique and charming film.

A slap between friends...

One of my surprises when considering confrontation scenes in movies recently was the number of films where she slaps/punches/kicks/knees him.

Robert Downey Jr. finds a red rose no defense against Marisa Tomei in Only You (1994)

For example: Definitely, Maybe (she slaps him twice), The Holiday (she punches him twice), No Strings Attached (she slaps him repeatedly), Only You (she slaps and kicks him), Miller's Crossing (she punches him), Jerry Maguire (she punches him), That Old Feeling (she attacks him), Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (she punches him), Groundhog Day (she slaps him repeatedly), Hollow Point (she punches him repeatedly), Romance & Cigarettes (she attacks him), The Royal Tenenbaums (she slaps him), and Scenes from a Mall (Bette Midler knees Woody Allen in the clods). 

Ryan Reynolds cops one from Isla Fisher in Definitely, Maybe (2008)

The one that surprised me most was When Harry Met Sally... I thought I knew this film fairly well, but I somehow hadn't registered the slap scene. (Or the two F-bombs Sally drops during the course of the movie.) 

When I asked various friends about it, not one of them could remember the face-slap scene either. These are all people who are fond of the movie. (I'd conducted an informal survey of What's Your Favourite Rom/Com? among friends a year earlier and WHMS came out on top, by a wide margin.) 

Watch out, Harry, here it comes...

Probably in Miller's Crossing, Groundhog Day, Romance & Cigarettes, The Holiday, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, the slap/punch is deserved. The rest are debatable, to say the least. Which raises the question of what purpose these face-slaps fulfill in movies. 

Aamir Khan cops a slap from Kareena Kapoor in 3 Idiots (2009)

Are they a vicarious I-Wish-I'd-Done-That moment to satisfy a female audience still seething over some historical wrong, or do they fulfill some other function?

Bill Murray deserved it. Definitely.

I asked a number of women if they'd ever slapped a guy's face. Only one admitted to it, and she pleaded serious (and violent) provocation. The others were generally vague (read, non-committal), and some were decidedly defensive.

Edward Burns deserved it, too.

From a cinematic perspective, I think of the Cecil B. De Mille quote: "I will trade you forty gorgeously beautiful Hawaiian sunsets for one good sock on the jaw."

For the benefit of those looking at the timing—for structural reasons—I checked five of our films. The punch in The Holiday takes place at the 12% mark, the slap in Only You at the 54% mark, in Groundhog Day at the 57% mark, in Definitely, Maybe at the 75% mark, and in When Harry Met Sally at the 89% mark. 

What does it all mean? Who knows? Certainly not me. But I am now reviewing confrontation scenes in my scripts with a view to adding a decent slap somewhere.

First posted: 16 September 2011
 

Disguising the exposition

I've been looking at confrontational dialogue scenes in movies lately, the ones where he and she face off, and maybe get a few home truths off their chest. I expected to find lots of them in romantic comedies, but was surprised to discover how few rom/coms have such a scene. 

You don't believe me? It's true. Think of the (financially) most successful rom/com of all time, My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002). Lots of conflict, but it's with the family, not the boyfriend. In What Women Want (2000), the second most successful, the conflict is with himself, his daughter, his boss and most of all, the weird ability he suddenly develops. Or think of movies like Sleepless in Seattle (1993), or Serendipity (2001), where the happy couple barely get to exchange opening pleasantries, forget about having time to work up to a righteous indignation. 

There's a great confrontation scene in Jerry Maguire (1996), where she slugs Tom Cruise, but that's the old girlfriend, not Renée Zellweger. There is a face-slap scene in When Harry Met Sally... (1989), something I've discovered even aficionados of the movie don't remember (but that's a subject for another time). In Only You (1994), Marisa Tomei gets to beat up Robert Downey, Jr., and in You've Got Mail (1998), Meg Ryan confronts Tom Hanks; but I had to go to an action movie like Die Hard (1988) for a great spousal confrontation scene, or Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), where the Best Punch Award goes to Karen Allen, not Harrison Ford. 

Some of the finest confrontation dialogue scenes take place between married couples. Check out the first meeting between the exes in That Old Feeling (1987) for a great example of two people building up a full head of steam.  

When exes meet, there's liable to be some friction.

Another is The Out-Of-Towners (1999), a remake of an old Jack Lemmon movie. It was while watching it again that I came to appreciate just how far you can go in disguising an exposition scene. 

Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn play a married couple who are in New York so he can attend a job interview. He needs the job because he just got fired for being too old, but he hasn't told his wife yet. Now comes the moment when she has to be informed. It could have been the dullest piece of exposition imaginable; instead, it's the funniest

Steve Martin tells the group, "I got fired!"

scene in the movie. They seek refuge in an old church to escape the close attention of a large and aggressive dog, only to find themselves being welcomed into an AA-style meeting for people with sex problems. Check out the movie to see just how well a simple piece of exposition can be turned into a classic encounter.

First posted: 12 September 2011

A slap between friends...

One of my surprises when considering confrontation scenes in movies recently was the number of films where she slaps/punches/kicks/knees him.

Robert Downey Jr. finds a red rose no defense against Marisa Tomei in Only You (1994)

For example: Definitely, Maybe (she slaps him twice), The Holiday (she punches him twice), No Strings Attached (she slaps him repeatedly), Only You (she slaps and kicks him), Miller's Crossing (she punches him), Jerry Maguire (she punches him), That Old Feeling (she attacks him), Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (she punches him), Groundhog Day (she slaps him repeatedly), Hollow Point (she punches him repeatedly), Romance & Cigarettes (she attacks him), The Royal Tenenbaums (she slaps him), and Scenes from a Mall (Bette Midler knees Woody Allen in the clods). 

Ryan Reynolds cops one from Isla Fisher in Definitely, Maybe (2008)

The one that surprised me most was When Harry Met Sally... I thought I knew this film fairly well, but I somehow hadn't registered the slap scene. (Or the two F-bombs Sally drops during the course of the movie.) 

When I asked various friends about it, not one of them could remember the face-slap scene either. These are all people who are fond of the movie. (I'd conducted an informal survey of What's Your Favourite Rom/Com? among friends a year earlier and WHMS came out on top, by a wide margin.) 

Watch out, Harry, here it comes...

Probably in Miller's Crossing, Groundhog Day, Romance & Cigarettes, The Holiday, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, the slap/punch is deserved. The rest are debatable, to say the least. Which raises the question of what purpose these face-slaps fulfill in movies. 

Aamir Khan cops a slap from Kareena Kapoor in 3 Idiots (2009)

Are they a vicarious I-Wish-I'd-Done-That moment to satisfy a female audience still seething over some historical wrong, or do they fulfill some other function?

Bill Murray deserved it. Definitely.

I asked a number of women if they'd ever slapped a guy's face. Only one admitted to it, and she pleaded serious (and violent) provocation. The others were generally vague (read, non-committal), and some were decidedly defensive.

Edward Burns deserved it, too.

From a cinematic perspective, I think of the Cecil B. De Mille quote: "I will trade you forty gorgeously beautiful Hawaiian sunsets for one good sock on the jaw."

For the benefit of those looking at the timing—for structural reasons—I checked five of our films. The punch in The Holiday takes place at the 12% mark, the slap in Only You at the 54% mark, in Groundhog Day at the 57% mark, in Definitely, Maybe at the 75% mark, and in When Harry Met Sally at the 89% mark. 

What does it all mean? Who knows? Certainly not me. But I am now reviewing confrontation scenes in my scripts with a view to adding a decent slap somewhere.