Carrie Fisher was reason why Harry fell for Sally
This is my favourite time of year to rewatch When Harry Met Sally because of the pivotal New Year’s Eve scenes.
And with Carrie Fisher’s recent passing, there’s even more reason to return.
The central question of the movie is: Can men and women be friends? But pay close attention to the film’s secondary couple — Marie (Fisher) and Jess (Bruno Kirby) — and another question emerges: Can you recognize a good thing when you see it? Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) spend the entire film in will-they-or-won’t-they mode, while Marie and Jess quickly decide: We will.
It’s a delight to watch Harry and Sally debate the nature of friendship. But it can also be maddening at times. Why can’t they see that they’re great for each other?
Marie and Jess, on the other hand, recognize their connection right away and seize on it.
Let’s revisit that horrible double date where Sally is set up with Jess and Marie with Harry. The boredom is palpable — up until that moment when Marie accidentally quotes Jess’s writing back to him.
“I think restaurants have become too important,” Jess says.
“Oh, I agree,” Marie responds. “Restaurants are to people in the ’80s what theatre was to people in the ’60s. I read that in a magazine.” “I wrote that,” Jess admits. “Get out of here,” Marie says. “I did. I wrote that.” “I don’t think I’ve quoted anything from a magazine in my life. That’s amazing. Don’t you think that’s amazing? And you wrote it?”
After Marie goes on about how articulate Jess is, he recognizes the rarity of what’s just happened: “Nobody has ever quoted me back to me before.”
Once Marie and Jess confirm with their friends that there will be no hard feelings if they swap dates, the two jump into a cab with each other. The decisiveness with which Jess and Marie speed away, leaving Harry and Sally stranded in their own stasis, is quite stark.
Could Marie and Jess have been as decisive with each other if they hadn’t had front-row seats for their friends’ waffling? Probably not.
The connection that Marie and Jess seize on immediately isn’t all that different from the one Harry and Sally have had all along. Either couple might not have made that leap if they didn’t have the other around.
Jess and Marie tell their friends to get together already! “You should’ve done it in the first place,” Marie says to a distraught Sally. “You belong together.”