When Harry Met Sally = Annie Hall + Manhattan

Having recently read Billy Crystal’s memoir (Still Foolin’ ’Em) and never having seen When Harry Met Sally, I finally watched it on cable last night. (I’m gay, what can I tell you. Maybe if it had been called When Harry Met Barry.) I was struck by its similarity to Annie Hall and Manhattan. Now, Annie Hall and Manhattan are two of my favorite films of all time, so it’s understandable why even someone as talented as Rob Reiner would want to copy them, but still… So I decided to come up with this handy chart:

	When Harry Met Sally	Annie Hall	Manhattan
New York City setting	X	X	X
Gershwin songs	X		X
Nebbishy, funny Jew meets emotionally unavailable shiksa	X	X	X
Characters talk directly to camera	X	X
Scene in deli	X		X
Male romantic lead goes to apartment of female romantic lead to comfort her when she’s crying	X	X
Male romantic lead runs to reunite with female romantic lead at end of movie	X		X
Montage sequence at end of movie encapsulating course of relationship	X	X
Male romantic lead winds up with female romantic lead at end of movie	X

Significantly, When Harry Met Sally is the only one of the three where the male romantic lead winds up with the female romantic lead at the end of the movie. And that’s why Annie Hall and Manhattan were critically-lauded films and When Harry Met Sally was just an entertaining movie.