There are standard, boring romantic comedies, and then there’s the work of Nora Ephron. Ephron, one of three Ephron sisters who became a screenwriter and author, was the rare rom com writer whose work contained something of substance, something with brains as well as heart. She’s the mind behind a host of genre classics: Julie & Julia, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, as well as underrated movies like My Blue Heaven, Mixed Nuts, and the drama Silkwood. Her acerbic, witty pen has been silenced. Nora Ephron died yesterday at age 71. She has been struggling with leukemia and pneumonia at the time of death, according to New York Presbyterian Hospital.
“You do get to a certain point in life where you have to realistically, I think, understand that the days are getting shorter, and you can’t put things off thinking you’ll get to them someday,” Ephron wrote in 2010’s I Remember Nothing. “If you really want to do them, you better do them. There are simply too many people getting sick, and sooner or later you will. So I’m very much a believer in knowing what it is that you love doing so you can do a great deal of it.”
While her films weren’t always great (try not to blame her too harshly for Bewitched), when she was on, she was on. Yes, there wasn’t a lot of substance in her Tom Hanks vehicles, but they were sweet and funny and witty. I mean, keep in mind that she was nominated for three Oscars during her career, so she must have been doing something right. She also invented the modern romantic comedy template (though don’t hold that against her either).
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