Film & TV picks: When Harry Met Sally..., The Secret Lives Of Animals, The Return

When Harry Met Sally… (NC16)

Brought back by indie cinema The Projector for a 35th anniversary screening this Christmas season, the quintessentially New York movie is often held up as an example of the phrase, “They don’t make romantic comedies like this any more.”

Released in 1989 to critical and commercial success, the film is filled with memorable moments, including its most famous one in which Sally (Meg Ryan) fakes an orgasm in Manhattan’s Katz’s Delicatessen to prove a point to her friend Harry (Billy Crystal).

The neighbouring diner – who says the line, “I’ll have what she’s having” – is Estelle Reiner, mother of director Rob Reiner. That line is now ranked 33rd on the American Film Institute’s list of top 100 movie quotations.

Screenwriter Nora Ephron, nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, based Sally’s nitpicking style of restaurant ordering on her own dining habits.  

The movie also sparked conversations about whether it is possible for men and women to remain platonic friends – an argument that still rages today – and helped turn Katz’s into a tourist magnet.

Today, over the table where Harry and Sally sat, a sign reads: “Where Harry met Sally… hope you have what she had.”

Where: The Projector at Cineleisure, Level 5, 8 Grange Road
MRT: Somerset
When: Dec 22 and 27, 5pm and 8.30pm respectively
Admission: $16 (weekend standard), $14 (student/full-time national serviceman/senior concession); special $2 discount on standard tickets for those turning 35 in 2024
Info: theprojector.sg/films-and-events/when-harry-met-sally

The Secret Lives Of Animals

Now streaming on Apple TV+

The lives of basilisk lizards, meerkats, glass tree frogs and many more are narrated by English actor Hugh Bonneville (Paddington film series, 2014 to 2024; Downton Abbey, 2010 to present) in this 10-part docuseries from the award-winning BBC Studios Natural History Unit. 

Now streaming on Apple TV+, the show took over three years to film, with the unit travelling to 24 countries to capture the behaviour of 77 species. 

Each episode highlights an aspect of animal life. The first episode, for example, is Leaving Home, which charts the progress of a lizard, seal and fish as they move into new and possibly hazardous environments. In episode six, The Art Of Deception, an owlet, a cuttlefish and a caterpillar display their skill at blending into their surroundings. 

In Making Friends, the seventh episode, a reticulated humming frog and burrowing tarantula develop a surprisingly beneficial relationship. 

The Return (M18)

116 minutes, now showing
★★★★☆

Ralph Fiennes – who better? – portrays Greek king Odysseus of Ithaca. He washes up on the shores of his island after 20 years away in the Trojan War, unrecognisable to even his queen Penelope (Juliette Binoche).

Shot on craggy location, The Return recasts Homer’s Odyssey as a tragedy of stripped-down solemnity and slow-boiling power.

Italian director Uberto Pasolini condenses just the last few days in the ancient Greek epic poem. Binoche is every bit Fiennes’ equal in their third pair-up, following Wuthering Heights (1992) and The English Patient (1996).

How much longer can the presumed widow hold off the mob of louts imprisoning her in her palace, hounding her to marry one of them? They are vying for the throne, which means killing her son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer).

In an archery contest-turned-massacre, Odysseus will shed his guise of a beggar to slaughter the suitors and reclaim all that is rightfully his. It is a breathtakingly thrilling coda, but it is without catharsis or honour nor any joyous reunion.

Veterans today will know his condition to be post-traumatic stress disorder, and Penelope’s question, “Why do men go to war?”, continues to be asked in these violent times. – Whang Yee Ling