Editing When Harry Met Sally... (section)

===Critical response===
On the review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]], ''When Harry Met Sally...'' holds an approval rating of 89% based on 128 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Rob Reiner's touching, funny film set a new standard for romantic comedies, and he was ably abetted by the sharp interplay between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/when_harry_met_sally/ | title=When Harry Met Sally (1989) | website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] | access-date=February 4, 2025 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829061829/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/when_harry_met_sally/ | archive-date=August 29, 2013 | url-status=live }}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/when-harry-met-sally | title=When Harry Met Sally... | website=[[Metacritic]] | access-date=February 5, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024060743/http://www.metacritic.com/movie/when-harry-met-sally | archive-date=October 24, 2012 | url-status=live }}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film a rare "A+" grade.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-cinemascore-matters-box-office-225563|title=Why CinemaScore Matters for Box Office|website=The Hollywood Reporter|date=August 19, 2011|language=en|access-date=2020-03-02}}</ref>

The film led [[Roger Ebert]] to call Reiner "one of Hollywood's very best directors of comedy", and said the film was "most conventional, in terms of structure and the way it fulfills our expectations. But what makes it special, apart from the Ephron screenplay, is the chemistry between Crystal and Ryan."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/when-harry-met-sally---1989 | title=When Harry Met Sally . . . | work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] | date=July 12, 1989 | access-date=July 2, 2024 | last=Ebert | first=Roger | author-link=Roger Ebert | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930072140/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19890712%2FREVIEWS%2F907120301%2F1023 | archive-date=September 30, 2007 | url-status=live }}</ref>

In a review for ''[[The New York Times]]'', Caryn James called ''When Harry Met Sally...'' an "often funny but amazingly hollow film" that "romanticized lives of intelligent, successful, neurotic New Yorkers"; James characterized it as "the sitcom version of a [[Woody Allen]] film, full of amusing lines and scenes, all infused with an uncomfortable sense of ''déjà vu''".<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/12/movies/review-film-it-s-harry-loves-sally-in-a-romance-of-new-yorkers-and-neuroses.html | title=It's Harry (Loves) Sally in a Romance Of New Yorkers and Neuroses | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=July 12, 1989 | access-date=September 23, 2007 | last=James | first=Caryn | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325182254/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/12/movies/review-film-it-s-harry-loves-sally-in-a-romance-of-new-yorkers-and-neuroses.html | archive-date=March 25, 2009 | url-status=live }}</ref>

Rita Kempley of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' praised Meg Ryan as the "summer's [[Melanie Griffith]] – a honey-haired blonde who finally finds a showcase for her sheer exuberance. Neither naif nor vamp, she's a woman from a pen of a woman, not some [[Cinderella]] of a ''[[Working Girl]]''."<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/whenharrymetsallyrkempley_a0c9a5.htm | title=Romance That Dances | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=July 12, 1989 | access-date=June 15, 2008 | last=Kempley | first=Rita | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105102142/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/whenharrymetsallyrkempley_a0c9a5.htm | archive-date=November 5, 2012 | url-status=live }}</ref> Mike Clark of ''[[USA Today]]'' gave the film three out of four stars, writing, "Crystal is funny enough to keep Ryan from all-out stealing the film. She, though, is smashing in an eye-opening performance, another tribute to Reiner's flair with actors."<ref>{{cite news | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/55933280.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jul+12%2C+1989&author=Mike+Clark&pub=USA+TODAY+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=01.D&desc=%60Harry+Met+Sally%27+is+Reiner%27s+next+sure+thing | title=''Harry Met Sally'' is Reiner's next sure thing | work=[[USA Today]] | date=July 12, 1989 | last=Clark | first=Mike}}{{dead link|date=July 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> [[David Ansen]] provided one of the rare negative reviews of the film for ''[[Newsweek]]''. He criticized the casting of Crystal, "Not surprisingly he handles the comedy superbly, but he's too cool and self-protective an actor to work as a romantic leading man", and felt that as a film, "of wonderful parts, it doesn't quite add up".<ref>{{cite news | title=To Make True Lovers of Friends | work=[[Newsweek]] | date=July 17, 1989 | last=Ansen | first=David}}</ref>