when a movie is too smart for its own genre

Oh, love ... I love love. Who doesn't? And who doesn't love a good Nora Ephron rom-com either? Whether it's When Harry Met Sally (1989), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), You've Got Mail (1998) or even her underrated Bewitched movie (2005), Ephron has always had something interesting to say about love.

But, while WHMS is my personal favorite film of hers as a screenwriter, I've gotta admit that her second film as a director, Sleepless in Seattle, is a special little flick. The Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan feature pulls from the history of romance and romantic comedy movies (such as it's repeated references to An Affair to Remember and the film that was a remake of, Love Affair) to tell an earnest, surprisingly mature (while still being fun and silly) story about adults on opposite coasts and the magnetic pull they feel to each other. Even better, many of the film's themes are still relevant to this day.

Which is exactly what I'll talk about today! In this video, I'll dive into how the film interfaces with the romance genre, what it has to say about modern dating conventions like Tinder, Bumble, etc, and what the film seems to suggest is the secret to long-lasting, healthy love. So yeah, end of description. You've just been descripted.

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:18 - A Crash Course on Nora Ephron
02:14 - Sleepless in Synopsis
03:54 - The tropes that Sleepless explores
06:40 - The meta component (and what Sleepless does differently)
10:39 - Why Sleepless' approach is special
14:38 - How the film relates to modern love
19:11 - Modern Love and how Sam and Annie relate to it
23:05 - Sam and Annie want An Affair to Remember
32:05 - Toddler love vs Adult love
36:38 - A wistful sigh (as in, a conclusion)

#tomhanks #videoessay #filmanalysis

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