Reiner and Meg Ryan on the set of ‘When Harry Met Sally…,’ 1989.Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection
I would argue that Reiner’s ability to adapt to the material in front of him was certainly a talent. But whether it was a military tribunal or an orgasm at Katz’s, he brought to it a specific wit and whimsy, an emotional truth and a wry New Yorker’s voice that is distinctly his. (And there was always a Peter Falk, a Wallace Shawn, a Kevin Pollak, a Corey Feldman somewhere in the picture, contributing a raised eyebrow and wiseass smirk.) He hailed from a tradition of working directors like Sidney Lumet, Arthur Penn, and Mike Nichols, Jews with some theater experience who experimented and had hits and misses in their large filmographies, across which fans, ball knowers, could detect a consistent directorial touch. They were filmmakers without signature shots, known less for moving the camera than they were for their thinking, their presentation, and their consistent ability to pull greatness out of their actors and infuse a story with feeling.
Reiner brought his history on screen with him. He was Carl Reiner’s son, and there is a metatextual quality to his presence—zaftig, bald and bearded, gap-toothed with kind eyes and an easy laugh, perpetually mid-schtick. Reiner was perhaps best utilized on television by Elizabeth Meriweather and Zooey Deschanel’s seven-season sitcom The New Girl, playing the father of Deschanel’s saucer-eyed song-and-dance girl, a role he was spiritually perfect for, if not exactly genetically believable in. Alongside Nora Ephron, with When Harry Met Sally, his greatest, most influential and impactful film, Reiner consecrated the modern romantic comedy, so he made sense as New Girl’s presiding spirit, imparting awww-inspiring wisdom to his daughter when not riffing, breaking balls and building sandwiches with Jake Johnson. It’s the exact energy Scorsese brilliantly subverts in Wolf, taking delight in America’s dad performing a sketch Carl and Mel Brooks might’ve put on using language they wouldn’t, affecting a British accent then screaming profanity at people calling while his stories are on.