"Prime"

The press notes for "Prime"(which does not, sad to say, quite live up to its name) describe its central romance as a May-December affair. That may be overstating it. True, Rafi, the older, female half of the couple, is 14 years older than her beau, but Rafi is played by Uma Thurman, who doesn't look a day older than the middle of July. Her summery radiance helps make this thin romantic comedy hard to dislike.
Image result for prime 2005 reviewRafi, when we meet her, is 37 - if you call that December, then I must be, well, dead - and freshly divorced. One evening at an Antonioni double feature, she bumps into David (Bryan Greenberg), a sweet, 23-year-old aspiring painter who lives with his grandparents. The difference in their ages makes them a little nervous, but the more serious obstacle comes from David's family. For one thing, they don't approve of him dating a non-Jewish woman, and for another, his mother, Lisa, happens to be Rafi's therapist.
Lisa is played by Meryl Streep, in a strenuous but not unamusing performance that suggests Dr. Melfi from "The Sopranos" crossed with Molly Goldberg, the Yiddishe Mama dynamo from the long-running radio and television series. As she did in Mike Nichols's adaptation of "Angels in America" on HBO, Ms. Streep shows her fondness for Yiddish inflections and polite ethnic shtick. To which I can only say: Meryl, enough already! So you can say tuchis and nosh on some pastrami. Mazel tov! Jackie Mason you're not.
Image result for prime 2005 review Image result for prime 2005 review
As for "Prime," well, as my bubbe used to say, comme ci, comme ça. It was written and directed by Ben Younger, whose first film, "Boiler Room," pulsed with raw, youthful urban energy. This is a tamer, if also more polished, effort, and it has some moments of energy, both comic and sexual, as well as a fondness for real Manhattan locations. The bows to romantic comedy convention seem perfunctory. There is the inevitable goofy male sidekick (Jon Abrahams, as a guy who likes to throw cream pies in the faces of women he's dated) as well as the obligatory gay friend (Zak Orth). Also, of course, the bickering Jewish grandparents (Jerry Adler and Doris Belack).
Image result for prime 2005 reviewLike David himself, the picture is genial and unassuming, dusting off and quietly updating some of the themes associated with Philip Roth and Woody Allen. If the brilliant, hyperarticulate angst that drives characters like Alexander Portnoy and Alvy Singer is missing from David, so too is the vengeful edge of misogyny. His mother is pushy but not monstrous, and his desire for Rafi is pretty straightforward.
All of this makes the movie pleasant, but not very memorable - a pale mirror image of "Shopgirl," which touches on some similar themes. Mr. Greenberg, a heartthrob on the WB series "One Tree Hill," is not much of a big-screen presence, and he is nearly pushed out of the movie by Ms. Streep and Ms. Thurman, who bring enormous reservoirs of feeling to their roles. There are times when Ms. Thurman seems more alive - funnier, hungrier, tougher and more sensitive - than the movie itself.

WITH: Meryl Streep (Lisa Metzger), Uma Thurman (Rafi Gardet), Bryan Greenberg (David Bloomberg), Jon Abrahams (Morris), Zak Orth (Randall), Jerry Adler (Sam) and Doris Belack (Blanch).

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