“Prime”
Universal Pictures
Written and directed by Ben Younger
Starring: Meryl Streep, Uma Thurman, Bryan Greenberg and Jon Abrahams
Opened Oct. 28,2005
Rated PG-13/116 minutes
Three out of four stars
Rafi lies on the couch of her psychoanalyst, a real swell lady named Lisa who nods and goes, “Mmm-hmm,” when her patients burst into sobbing streams of consciousness.
Today is different.
Mopey no more, Rafi is tickled pink by the exciting possibility of a new lover. The sex is great, the company is welcome…
“…but he’s 23,” the 37-year-old Rafi explains. “He’s a child!”
And wouldn’t you know it, that child is also Lisa’s son.
Awkward…
You might think that modern relationships are messy enough without doctor-patient, patient-on-doctor’s-son complications.
“Prime” begs to differ. It has that very complication, but is it needed? Sure, a few laughs are wrung and suspense is dangled, but once the cat is out of the bag, we wonder what the big deal was.
It’s a hook. We go to the movie, grinning like co-conspirators with the filmmakers as we watch Rafi (Uma Thurman) and David (Bryan Greenberg) court, kiss and wrestle in bed.
When Rafi makes her weekly visit to Lisa (Meryl Streep), she gushes with giddy, sexual frankness that’s all the more juicy because it involves Lisa’s son…and no one’s the wiser but us.
Oh, Lisa does figure it out eventually-before either of the lovers does-which brings up certain ethical issues. Should Lisa allow Rafi to continue her visits, unaware of their hidden connection?
On the other hand, Lisa is in a unique position to gather inside information about her son. Can she give up that opportunity?
That’s a big enough quandary for one movie to tackle, but director Ben Younger would rather draw-and-quarter his script, tearing it apart in several unfocused directions.
For instance, though David has shirked his traditional Jewish upbringing, his parents still hope that he’ll meet and marry a sweet, Jewish girl.
Rafi is a lot of things-a fashion photographer, a recent divorce, a sweet girl-but she is not Jewish.
There’s also the matter of Rafi’s insatiable baby craving. When David loses his job and litters Rafi’s apartment with loafish heaps of man debris, Rafi wonders if this “man” is reliable enough to support her and a possible family.
Dilemmas abound, but the underlying issues are barely scraped. Taken as it is, however, “Prime” is a step up from the usual assembly-line Hollywood fairy tales that studios love to march out and proclaim as “so money.”
Streep’s legitimacy is contagious-she infects the entire production with her class. She plays Lisa as a woman who approaches psychology as a carpenter pats his belt, looking for the right tool at the right time. Detached from her therapeutic platitudes, Lisa is brought back to earth by her son’s relationship with Rafi. Streep has fun with what is ultimately a supporting role.
More time is spent on Greenberg’s David and Thurman’s Rafi. They fill a gaping need in each other’s lives-however temporary that need may be. We watch the good times and the bad and wonder how this can possibly have a happy ending.
In that sense, “Prime” fulfills a gaping need of our own-it’s the closest we’ve had to a mainstream, adult romantic-comedy in many a moon.
The story may feel a little messy and artificial, but at least it follows its characters to their deserved ends and regards them with love and hope.
