When Harry

is a 1989 American romantic comedy film written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. It stars Billy Crystal as Harry and Meg Ryan as Sally. The story follows the title characters from the time they meet just before sharing a cross-country drive, through twelve years or so of chance encounters in New York City. The film raises the question "Can men and women ever just be friends?" and advances many ideas about love that has since became household concepts.

Harry and Sally meet when she gives him a ride to New York after they both graduate from the University of Chicago. The film jumps through their lives as they both search for love, but fail, bumping into each other time and time again. Finally a close friendship blooms between them, and they both like having a friend of the opposite sex. But then they are confronted with the problem: "Can a man and a woman be friends, without sex getting in the way?"

Harry and Sally meet when she gives him a ride to New York after they both graduate from the University of Chicago. The film jumps through their lives as they both search for love, but fail, bumping into each other time and time again. Finally a close friendship blooms between them, and they both like having a friend of the opposite sex. But then they are confronted with the problem: "Can a man and a woman be friends, without sex getting in the way?"

Can a boy be “trapped” in a girl’s body? Can modern medicine “reassign” sex? Is our sex “assigned” to us in the first place? What is the most loving response to a person experiencing a conflicted sense of gender? What should our law say on matters of “gender identity”?

Set in 1986 when best friends Harry and Lloyd were teenagers, this is the madcap comic tale of their attempt to get out of the "special needs" department and into regular high school life.

Harry and Sally meet when she gives him a ride to New York after they both graduate from the University of Chicago. The film jumps through their lives as they both search for love, but fail, bumping into each other time and time again. Finally a close friendship blooms between them, and they both like having a friend of the opposite sex. But then they are confronted with the problem: "Can a man and a woman be friends, without sex getting in the way?"

Certain works bestride their genre like monuments, both inspiring and intimidating those who come after. Any dramatist who isn't a hack feels Shakespeare's plays looming over him. Any novelist worth taking seriously knows he'll probably never write anything as perfectly crafted as Great Expectations or as apparently effortless as Huckleberry Finn. Any director aspiring to make an epic has to figure out how to learn from David Lean without being overwhelmed and paralyzed by the mastery of Lawrence of Arabia or The Bridge on the River Kwai. And anyone trying to create a romantic comedy has to resign themselves to the near-certainty that they'll never do anything as near to flawless as When Harry Met Sally . . . (hereafter, WHMS).