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July 10, 2012 at 12:53 AM
The chick flick world lost an icon last month when Nora Ephron, writer of rom-com classics like “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” passed away. In her honor — and, okay, because it rained all weekend and I couldn’t go outside — I popped in my DVD of “Sleepless” last Sunday and re-watched it for the I-don’t-know-how-many-th time.
What struck me about it was…well, not the plot. Ephron wasn’t known for Hitchcockian twists. When you watch one of her movies, you know what you’re going to get: boy meets girl >> complications ensue >> love and happy endings triumph — sometimes at the expense of believability. Honestly, “Sleepless in Seattle” could have actually been uber creepy. I mean, Meg Ryan basically stalks Tom Hanks. If a guy I’d never met wrote me letters, had a private investigator take pictures of me and then flew across the country to follow me around for a couple of days, I’d file for a restraining order, not welcome him into my family.
But that’s where Ephron’s talent came into play. In less capable hands, her movies would have been formulaic and unrealistic, but she sold them to us — making them go-to films that women (and many men, though they probably won’t admit it) can relate to. According to IMDB, “Sleepless in Seattle” grossed $227 million worldwide…and this was back in 1993.
How did Ephron do it? In a word: dialogue. Take, for example, one of my favorite scenes in “Sleepless.” Tom Hanks’ widowed father character talks with his friend, played by Rob Reiner, about how he should ask out an interior designer for the first time.
Reiner: What do you mean how do you do it? You call her up, you say, “Let’s look at swatches.”
Hanks: Call her on the phone? Say, “Let’s look at swatches”?
Reiner: Yeah, you know, color schemes.
Hanks: She’s not gonna see right through that?
Reiner: You don’t do it like I do it. You do it in your own suave way. Think Cary Grant.
Hanks: Cary Grant would call up and say, “Come over and look at my swatches”?
Reiner: How do you know? Maybe he did.
Hanks: “Gunga Din”?
