Over at Popmatters, the Vox Pop column this week is about the author’s love of When Harry Met Sally.

I agree on all counts. It is probably my favorite real-life romantic comedy.

And it spoiled me forever. I am still waiting for my Harry, wherever and whoever he is, to come running up to me, breathless on New Year’s Eve, to declare:

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.

They had the perfect romance, Harry and Sally. They understood each other’s mood swings and were there to comfort each other through old relationships rearing their heads. They joked together, philosophized, grew sleepy watching old movies by phone. His was the last voice she wanted to hear at night. Hers was the first face he wanted to see in the morning.

A sadly small number of us will never live that kind of romance, never breathe into each other’s neck and feel that spark, so it is nice to watch it unfold with such human quality and imperfect beauty on the screen, wrapped in ’80s fashion witha dash of Harry Connick Jr. music. Old-school romance in a way that makes your heart skip just a little.

Even when they were with other people, you knew that they were MEANT TO BE. You knew it even though it took a painfully long time for them to figure it out. You saw it in the way they sang "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" in front of Ira. You heard it in the way they talked in silly voices, "Waiter! There is too much pepper in my paprikash." You could feel it in the tender way they looked at each other across the table when sharing blind dates with their best friends.

You knew in the end, despite all the obstacles, that these two people would end up together. And when they finally did and the credits rolled, you sensed it was forever — even though deep down you understood it was just a movie.

You knew the way you know about a good melon.

Life doesn’t always live up to the movies, but that is why the truly great movies are truly great. They can bring on the sigh of what could be, if only. That lost romance that might find its way back someday. Or that blush of new love that could turn into IT. Great movies can remind us what pleasures there are right in front of us and help rekindle the dream of finding our Harry, our Sally, our good melon.