The film’s structure is deceptively simple. It follows the two protagonists over twelve years, from their first contentious drive from Chicago to New York after college graduation, to a chance meeting in an airport five years later, to a final, fateful friendship in their thirties. No discussion of "When Harry Met Sally 1989" is complete without addressing the elephant in the deli—specifically, Katz’s Delicatessen on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
In the pantheon of cinematic history, few release years have been as stacked as 1989. It was the year of Batman , Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , Dead Poets Society , and Driving Miss Daisy . But nestled among the blockbusters and the heavy dramas was a quiet, talkative, and surprisingly radical film: When Harry Met Sally .
Because the film predicted the modern dating crisis. We are currently living in the world Harry and Sally created. The "will they/won't they" tension is the engine of every sitcom, from Friends to The Office . The idea that sleeping with a friend destroys the friendship is now a cliché because this film invented its modern vernacular.
