CORPORATE LINE: 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.
THE REVIEW: Prime labors on without rhyme or reason. The only real reason to sit through the film is for Meryl Streep. Prime tries hard to be romantic and also attempts to be funny. It isn’t either. The twists are awkward but never amount to big laughs like one would expect.
THE EXTRAS:
The commentary by Director Ben Younger and Producer Jennifer Todd is interesting and seems as entertaining as the film itself.
“Deleted Scenes” – The deleted scene are often as funny as anything in the film and that isn’t saying much.
“Outtakes” – Running under four minutes and even being that short it’s a waste of time.
“Prime-Time Players” – This is an interesting, albeit short making-of featurette.
FRANKLY: Prime is tiring. That’s not a good quality for a film. Prime drags and drags never leaving behind many laughs or interest.
+ Charlie Craine
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