When Harry Tries to Marry wants to be like When Harry Met Sally (WHMS) but falls far short. Harish (Harry) is an Indian-born architecture major in Manhattan. Unlike most couples of their generation, his parents' marriage was not arranged, and unlike most of Harry's relatives, they divorced. Mom is an architect in Mumbai; philandering Dad is a fashion photographer in Manhattan whose own fashion sense is West Hollywood 1979. (The actors playing Harry's parents, Tony Mirrcandani and especially Zenobia Shroff, are awful.) Harry is determined to avoid this by having an arranged marriage right after college. Harry calls India "my country," but he has an American accent. One of many loose ends you're left to wonder about.
Harry (Rahul Rai) is 22, handsome and likable. His roommate Louis (Osvaldo Hernandez) looks like a young John Leguizamo. Louis seems extremely gay, but although he isn't, their apartment has two beds side by side, is neat as a pin, and glows with pastels no straight guys would choose. Conveniently for the plot, in class one day (which class? We're never told) the instructor asks for students' opinions about marriage. Also conveniently, Harry is chosen, and praises the advantages of arranged marriage "in my country" (see above) in a speech that sounds anything but spontaneous. Theresa (Stefanie Estes, who looks here like a young, blue-eyed Mel Harris) is sitting behind him. Her major happens to be architecture as well, although it's clearly not an architecture class. She is also called on and rambles a bit about love, etc. So the instructor gives the class a written assignment: "Marriage vs Mating." It's a large class, but oddly, only Harry and Theresa are teamed up before the class period ends. So you figure that the paper will be part of the payoff, because there's a LOT of study-grouping for it, but no, it was just a gimmick; once it's served its purpose – giving the main characters a reason to spend time together – it disappears from the plot. (These students don't seem to spend much time on other coursework, or in fact, on any coursework.)
Act 2 is supposed to remind us of WHMS but does so only in its clumsy editing contrasted with WHMS. Various combinations of Harry, Louis, Theresa and Theresa's BFF Mary (Caitlin Gold, a real scene-stealer) study or socialize. The transitions are poorly modulated. Louis and Mary have gotten together, you see. So we're utterly perplexed when Louis, right in front of Mary, brings the plot to a screeching halt with a long speech in which his difficulties choosing the right blend of coffee symbolize his ambivalence about commitment. We're even more perplexed when Mary doesn't dump him on the spot, or even seem to take much offense. The comparison with WHMS also fails because in WHMS, Harry wasn't planning his wedding for most of the movie, so Sally's willingness to put up with his idiosyncrasies was more believable. Act 2 also supplies some contrived confrontations that add little or nothing to the plot.
Meanwhile, Harry agrees to the very first candidate: Nita Shah (Freishia Bomanbehram). Wow, she's gorgeous, and wow, an architecture student too, only in India. Harry does most of the "arranging" himself because at first his parents won't help. His father wisely tells him to drop the whole idea and "live a little." But Harry's architect mother suddenly comes to favor Harry's marriage when she learns that Nita is the daughter of the municipal official who grants building permits; however, her attempts to curry favor with Mr. Shah are received with frigid disdain. This is slightly funny.
Theresa is clearly falling for Harry despite his thoughtless cruelty as he shares his marriage plans with her. Harry is clearly distracted by Theresa's sexiness, but is too self-involved to notice her or his own feelings. Scene follows scene with Theresa annoyingly running hot-cold- hot-cold. For heaven's sake, girl, fish or cut bait! And Harry, you idiot, forget about Nita halfway around the world and pay attention to Theresa right in front of you! Of course, that's the whole plot, isn't it? It's undeniable that people often do things they themselves can't understand or explain, but this is ridiculous.
Act 3: College graduation (usually a big deal in a person's life, no?) passes without a moment of screen time, and then we're in India for the wedding. The film goes Bollywood, with dancing, eye-popping costumes and colors, soaring boom shots, and whiny singing. Louis, Theresa and Mary have come with Harry. Did they pay their own way or did Harry pay? Why would Theresa subject herself to this? Especially if she had to pay for her ticket? Well, the plot requires Theresa to come so that Nita can talk with her and immediately see that Theresa loves Harry, but Nita wants to marry him anyway – right up to the outdoor seaside ceremony where Harry just can't go through with it. But it's OKAY! Nita UNDERSTANDS! SHE was rushed into it by her parents! Mr. Shah is, to say the least, displeased with Harry and chases him; they both run off a wooden dock and into the ocean, and then of course everyone either falls or is pushed in. In their ornate traditional Hindu wedding outfits. The action is laughably unconvincingly staged.
Epilogue: Harry and the other three go back to the States and Harry DOESN'T marry Theresa; instead, they're good friends (with benefits? They're not telling) who spend time together while Harry "lives a little" and learns more about himself and what he really wants. That's okay, but getting there was way too much of a slog.
Harry (Rahul Rai) is 22, handsome and likable. His roommate Louis (Osvaldo Hernandez) looks like a young John Leguizamo. Louis seems extremely gay, but although he isn't, their apartment has two beds side by side, is neat as a pin, and glows with pastels no straight guys would choose. Conveniently for the plot, in class one day (which class? We're never told) the instructor asks for students' opinions about marriage. Also conveniently, Harry is chosen, and praises the advantages of arranged marriage "in my country" (see above) in a speech that sounds anything but spontaneous. Theresa (Stefanie Estes, who looks here like a young, blue-eyed Mel Harris) is sitting behind him. Her major happens to be architecture as well, although it's clearly not an architecture class. She is also called on and rambles a bit about love, etc. So the instructor gives the class a written assignment: "Marriage vs Mating." It's a large class, but oddly, only Harry and Theresa are teamed up before the class period ends. So you figure that the paper will be part of the payoff, because there's a LOT of study-grouping for it, but no, it was just a gimmick; once it's served its purpose – giving the main characters a reason to spend time together – it disappears from the plot. (These students don't seem to spend much time on other coursework, or in fact, on any coursework.)
Act 2 is supposed to remind us of WHMS but does so only in its clumsy editing contrasted with WHMS. Various combinations of Harry, Louis, Theresa and Theresa's BFF Mary (Caitlin Gold, a real scene-stealer) study or socialize. The transitions are poorly modulated. Louis and Mary have gotten together, you see. So we're utterly perplexed when Louis, right in front of Mary, brings the plot to a screeching halt with a long speech in which his difficulties choosing the right blend of coffee symbolize his ambivalence about commitment. We're even more perplexed when Mary doesn't dump him on the spot, or even seem to take much offense. The comparison with WHMS also fails because in WHMS, Harry wasn't planning his wedding for most of the movie, so Sally's willingness to put up with his idiosyncrasies was more believable. Act 2 also supplies some contrived confrontations that add little or nothing to the plot.
Meanwhile, Harry agrees to the very first candidate: Nita Shah (Freishia Bomanbehram). Wow, she's gorgeous, and wow, an architecture student too, only in India. Harry does most of the "arranging" himself because at first his parents won't help. His father wisely tells him to drop the whole idea and "live a little." But Harry's architect mother suddenly comes to favor Harry's marriage when she learns that Nita is the daughter of the municipal official who grants building permits; however, her attempts to curry favor with Mr. Shah are received with frigid disdain. This is slightly funny.
Theresa is clearly falling for Harry despite his thoughtless cruelty as he shares his marriage plans with her. Harry is clearly distracted by Theresa's sexiness, but is too self-involved to notice her or his own feelings. Scene follows scene with Theresa annoyingly running hot-cold- hot-cold. For heaven's sake, girl, fish or cut bait! And Harry, you idiot, forget about Nita halfway around the world and pay attention to Theresa right in front of you! Of course, that's the whole plot, isn't it? It's undeniable that people often do things they themselves can't understand or explain, but this is ridiculous.
Act 3: College graduation (usually a big deal in a person's life, no?) passes without a moment of screen time, and then we're in India for the wedding. The film goes Bollywood, with dancing, eye-popping costumes and colors, soaring boom shots, and whiny singing. Louis, Theresa and Mary have come with Harry. Did they pay their own way or did Harry pay? Why would Theresa subject herself to this? Especially if she had to pay for her ticket? Well, the plot requires Theresa to come so that Nita can talk with her and immediately see that Theresa loves Harry, but Nita wants to marry him anyway – right up to the outdoor seaside ceremony where Harry just can't go through with it. But it's OKAY! Nita UNDERSTANDS! SHE was rushed into it by her parents! Mr. Shah is, to say the least, displeased with Harry and chases him; they both run off a wooden dock and into the ocean, and then of course everyone either falls or is pushed in. In their ornate traditional Hindu wedding outfits. The action is laughably unconvincingly staged.
Epilogue: Harry and the other three go back to the States and Harry DOESN'T marry Theresa; instead, they're good friends (with benefits? They're not telling) who spend time together while Harry "lives a little" and learns more about himself and what he really wants. That's okay, but getting there was way too much of a slog.
