The Elegant Economy of 'When Harry Met Sally's' First Act
The Elegant Economy of 'When Harry Met Sally's' First Act
Writers of all stripes should study Nora Ephron's brilliant script, especially the three Act 1 meet cutes that establish the titular characters' friendship
There are so many aspects of Nora Ephron’s script for WHEN HARRY MET SALLY… (1989) that deserve study by screenwriters and storytellers in general, but none more so than how Ephron spends the entire first act repeating the same meet cute — reversing who Harry and Sally are as characters and setting up the film’s real story (and conflict) in the process.
Act 1 begins with the first meeting of Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan). Strangers, they’ve been set up by a mutual girl/friend to drive to New York together where they are both about to start their adult lives. He’s a dark, joyless cynic; she’s a hopeless but dysfunctional romantic. It’s one hell of a meet cute, and the road trip goes about as well as you’d expect from this odd couple pairing.
Act 1 then jumps ahead five years, to show how both have found love. In a twist, Harry, the cynic, is even engaged. This surprises and even frustrates Sally, who still sees him as some kind of dark foil to her worldview and happiness.
Then, Act 1 jumps ahead five more years and that’s when it happens:
Harry and Sally meet for a third time, except this time their personalities and circumstances have entirely flipped. His wife has left him, leaving him devastated and now a romantic softy. Her relationship has fizzled out, leaving her cynical about romance altogether.
They finally discover common ground and friendship…and, much later in their story, love.
In one act, Ephron essentially tells a three-act play, taking an obnoxious (but frustratingly charming) male character and turning him into a romantic lead you can root for while simultaneously transforming an (annoyingly) sweet female character into a romantic lead you can fall in love with.
This is why I would argue WHEN HARRY MET SALLY…’s first act is one of the strongest in romantic comedy history. You can learn a great deal from studying its dearth of plotting, which frees up running time for lengthy dialogue exchanges and its aforementioned character evolutions.
You can find the screenplay for WHEN HARRY MET SALLY… inside this article I recently shared: ‘Fifty Great Screenplays by Women to Download and Study for Free’.
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