Hollywood’s Humanist: Rob Reiner Was a Gifted Collaborator Who Understood Why We Tell Stories

Think about the very best of his oeuvre — an astonishing run that included multiple films that Reiner lived to see enter the pantheon. All of them get their electric charge from a precise, focused attention on human behavior. A Reiner character may be deluded (as in “This Is Spinal Tap”) or neurotic (“When Harry Met Sally …”) or outright deranged (“Misery”). But their personality will, every time, reveal itself to the viewer in a way that feels like meeting someone out there in the world beyond the cinema.

The gruesome circumstances of the deaths of Reiner and his wife, Michele, are vivid in the news right now. But as time passes, Reiner will, one hopes, be remembered…