Stop Calling ‘When Harry Met Sally’ a Valentine’s Day Movie

There are going to be a lot of lists on the internet tomorrow declaring Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner’s masterpiece, When Harry Met Sally, a Valentine’s Day movie. Unfortunately, every single one of those lists is dead wrong. When Harry Met Sally is not, I repeat, not a Valentine’s Day movie.

Listen, I understand the instinct to throw the “Valentine’s Day movie” label on this classic 1989 film. Valentine’s Day is a holiday celebrating romantic love, and When Harry Met Sally is a very romantic movie. There’s an adorable meet-cute, slow-burn pining, and romantic declarations. And maybe When Harry Met Sally would be a Valentine’s Day movie… if it weren’t so clearly already a New Year’s Eve movie.

Meg Ryan’s fake orgasm at Katz’s Delicatessen may be the most famous scene in the film, but the easily the most romantic scene is Billy Crystal’s New Year’s Eve speech. Harry (Crystal) and Sally (Ryan) spent twelve years dancing around each other, and then, finally, they slept together. But Harry regrets it, pulls away, and callously insults Sally in the process. Sally ends their friendship, declining Harry’s invite to be his date to a mutual friend’s New Year’s Eve party. Harry resigns himself to ringing in the New Year by himself, until he realizes what a fool he’s been. He crashes into the party, just before midnight, and hits Sally with one of the best love declarations in cinematic history.

“I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes, and I love that you are the last person I wanna talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve,” he tells her. Then, the soft sounds of “Auld Lang Syne,” begins to play, as Harry says, “I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

After a passionate kiss—with balloons and streamers falling around them, as if in celebration of their love—Harry pulls back to make a wisecrack about the song playing around them, aka the quintessential New Year’s song. “What does this song mean? My whole life, I don’t know what this song means. I mean, ‘Should old acquaintance be forgot’? Does that mean that we should forget old acquaintances, or does it mean if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot?”

Sally responds with a fond smile, “Well, maybe it just means that we should remember that we forgot them or something. Anyway, it’s about old friends.”

It’s hard to think of a New Year’s Eve moment in a movie topping this one. Never in my life have I heard the song “Auld Lang Syne,” and not thought of this scene. And if I find myself looking for a movie to watch on New Year’s, I always turn to When Harry Met Sally—because, obviously, it is the New Year’s Eve movie and not a Valentine’s Day movie.

“But, wait, can’t a movie be more than one type of holiday movie?” OK, sure, for the sake of argument, let’s imagine that’s true. I think we can all agree that When Harry Met Sally is, first and foremost, a New Year’s Eve movie. But if we are allowing for a secondary holiday attachment, could we then label When Harry Met Sally a Valentine’s Day movie?

No! We can’t! Because if we’re allowing for a secondary holiday for this film, it’s obviously going to be the first day of fall.

Just look at those sweaters! Those plaid jackets! Those red and yellow leaves in Central Park! When Harry Met Sally is a New Year’s Eve movie first, and a fall movie second. I’m sorry, but there’s just absolutely no room to also label it a Valentine’s Day movie on top of that. The February 14th holiday isn’t mentioned once in the film. I’d sooner call When Harry Met Sally a Christmas movie before a Valentine’s Day one—at least there is a brief shot of Meg Ryan lugging an evergreen tree down the sidewalk.

If you’re looking for a Nora Ephron movie to watch tomorrow, try Sleepless in Seattle. Now that’s a Valentine’s Day movie.