Mt. Rushmore- Meg Ryan
The rom com queen of the 90s, I wasn’t sure what direction to go with this next Mt. Rushmore, and my wife said ‘Meg Ryan’ so here I am. As you can imagine, her top four is very full of rom com roles, and here are some honorable mentions for America’s Sweetheart. Cap. Karen Walden in ‘Courage Under Fire,’ Alice Green in ‘When a Man Loves a Woman,’ Dr. Maggie Rice in ‘City of Angels,’ & Kate McKay in ‘Kate & Leopold.’
Sally Albright in ‘When Harry Met Sally…’- Meg Ryan received three Golden Globe nominations in her career for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Slight spoiler for the rest of the list, but those three nominations came from this movie and the following two. Considered by some the best rom com of all-time, this 1989 film follows the connection formed between Ryan’s Sally and Billy Crystals’ Harry and their evolution from friends to more than. Also, the diner scene is one of the most iconic movie scenes of its era. The closing scene is also incredibly iconic.
Kathleen Kelly in ‘You’ve Got Mail’- I guess the key to making an all-time rom com in the 90s was casting Meg Ryan across from an average looking white dude. She teams up with Tom Hanks to execute the enemies to lovers trope. Hanks’ Joe Fox is a successful chain bookstore manager who is likely to put Ryan’s small local bookshop out of business. But plot twist! They fall in love while exchanging emails! Didn’t see that one coming.
Annie Reed in ‘Sleepless in Seattle’- Next up is another rom com, coming in 1993. Starring Ryan as a journalist who becomes interested in a grieving father (Tom Hanks) when his son calls a radio show seeking a new partner for his dad. Another one of the all-time rom coms, this would be the second of three teams up between Ryan & Hanks, preceded by ‘Joe Versus the Volcano’ and followed by the aforementioned 'You’ve Got Mail.’
Anastasia in ‘Anastasia’- A breaking of type here, we finish the list not with a rom com, but with an animated feature. Ryan voices the title character in this film based on the conspiracy that the Russian princess survived her assassination and grew up outside the oligarchy. While this film is quite good and is now a Disney property (which makes Anastasia an unofficial Disney princess), I’ll admit that it really confused me as a kid from a historical sense. I thought it was true because we watched it in history class at school. I guess that’s maybe more on my teacher than the film, but I just wanted to mention it.
