It's just a mundane older-woman, younger-man romance played with more than the usual amount of contrivances.
Prime (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:115
Fresh:56
Rotten:59
Average Rating:5.6/10
Consensus: Though Streep is dependably terrific in her role, the rest of the movie is too sitcom-ish, and the romance itself is dull.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for sexual content including dialogue, and for language
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Genre: Romance, Theatrical Release
Theatrical Release:Oct 28, 2005 Wide
Box Office: $22,728,025
Synopsis: New York City forms the backdrop for writer/director Ben Younger's (BOILER ROOM) PRIME, a gentle comedy that weaves a tale of two lovers trying to keep the flame alive as an unusual obstacle is... New York City forms the backdrop for writer/director Ben Younger's (BOILER ROOM) PRIME, a gentle comedy that weaves a tale of two lovers trying to keep the flame alive as an unusual obstacle is hurled in their path. Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman) is a newly divorced 37-year-old career woman who regularly spills her woes to her therapist, Lisa Metzger (Meryl Streep). Rafi's love life takes a sudden upturn when she meets Bryan Greenberg (David Bloomberg), a penniless painter who lives on the Lower East Side with his grandparents and, at 23, is significantly younger than Rafi. Uptown girl Rafi isn't used to such differences in age and location, but the sex is great, and Bryan seems attentive enough, so she jubilantly tells Lisa in passionate detail about their blossoming relationship. The trouble is, the more Rafi tells her, the more Lisa realizes that the hot young boy-toy Rafi is busy seducing on a nightly basis is, in fact, her own son. The problems mount, with Rafi's status as a gentile not going over well with Bryan's Jewish family, and Lisa unable to decide whether to stop the therapy sessions or not. Younger delivers a heady mixture of laughs and salient points in a film that settles snugly into familiar early-21st-century territory for romantic-comedy fans. He peppers the action with product placement, warm pastel colors in spacious FRIENDS-style New York apartments, and bitter recriminations that quickly turn to passionate makeup sex on more than one occasion. The director clearly enjoys a love affair with the city, with swooping shots throughout of the late-night Manhattan skyline providing the perfect setting as his two leads act out their bittersweet union. [More]
Starring: Uma Thurman, Meryl Streep, Bryan Greenberg, Jon Abrahams
Starring: Uma Thurman, Meryl Streep, Bryan Greenberg, Jon Abrahams, Zak Orth
Director: Ben Younger
Director: Ben Younger
Screenwriter: Ben Younger
Producer: Jennifer Todd, Suzanne Todd
Studio: Universal Pictures
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Reviews for Prime
This falls short of the obvious model, Woody Allen's Annie Hall, but the performers are engagingly good at pushing the situation along.
Wryly funny and refreshingly sophisticated for most of its running time.
The sort of movie where all of the best jokes are in the trailer, but these days a romantic comedy with anything worth quoting at all is something of an accomplishment.
Where the movie works is the first hour with Streep and Thurman wonderfully playing off each other.
[Younger] turns what could have been a silly romp into something bigger and more beautiful, something that embraces both laughter and tears.
Once the unlikely premise is established, the movie drags on, injected with one-liners and padded with way too many complicated misunderstandings, reconciliations and breakups.
It offers an unlikely romance in a somewhat comic situation, finding both humor and emotional truth.
All that really keeps Prime from being a one-gag, one-dimensional affair is Streep.
While Greenberg is amiable enough, he certainly doesn't have the charisma needed to play the leading man in this romantic comedy.
This soggy, uninspired entertainment seems to demonstrate that director Ben Younger, who did such a terrific job with the stock-swindle movie Boiler Room, doesn't have the chops for a comedy that's trying to be funny and perceptive.
Refreshingly bright, unpredictable and intelligent while still offering moments of giddy humor that take you totally by surprise.
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