Petites confidences (à ma psy)

In spite of most negative comments submitted to IMDb, Ben Younger's "Prime" is an interesting look at a mismatched pair in this story. It also raises ethical questions about when does a therapist has to decide what is best for a patient. Ben Younger whose film debut was "The Boiler Room", has a keen eye for the situation he is presenting in this film that seems to be perceived as a "chick flick", but that otherwise is a funny take on how love can make a person blind to reality.

Rafi, the lovely woman at the center of the action, has gone through a painful divorce. Is she ready for another deception? No, she is much stronger now, and with the help of Lisa, her therapist, she will know better how to deal with anyone that might try to play with her feelings.

Enter David, the young hunk of a guy, who likes what he sees when he meets Rafi, casually, one night while waiting to go in to see a film at Cinema Village. Indeed, Rafi is all what any young man could wish for. Not only is she gorgeous, but as it turns out, she is a bit older. But does that matter at all? No way!

Lisa is Rafi's therapist. In fact, she is a bit surprised to find that Rafi has fallen for a younger man. She advises her to take a chance and see where it goes, but be careful not to be hurt again. The only thing is she has no clue it's her own son who is involved in the romance.

The question of ethics come into play as Liza agonizes she is not doing the right thing with her patient, something that has to be worked with her own therapist. Not only that, but Lisa, as well as her Jewish family expects David to stay within his own when he picks the girl he will marry.

"Prime" is light and works well because of the work of the three principals. Uma Thurman is the ideal actress for playing Rafi. Not only is she a gorgeous woman, but she is an actress who never gives a false note in the character she is portraying. Meryl Streep is also at her best in playing the therapist. Bryan Greenberg plays David with ease and makes him comes alive.

In spite to have gone to see the film without any expectation, we found the film light and entertaining thanks to Ben Younger's direction.

A great, great movie, especially when one considers the stinkers that usually litter the romantic comedy landscape.

This movie was smart, funny and most importantly, REAL. The cheese is held to a minimum and characters do and say things that real people say. No monologues that sound like they were cribbed from 'Chicken Soup for the Soul', just real people reacting to each other and their circumstances.

Meryl Streep is great in this (and this is coming from a straight, twenty-something male) and Uma Thurman and Brian Greenberg have a real chemistry together. There are some real classic lines in this and it's a million times funnier and smarter than say, 'Monster in Law' or 'Just Like Heaven'.

As one who usually cringes my way through 9 out of 10 'chick flicks' this is the rare one out the ten that passes muster, and does so in a big way. I fear that this movie will be overshadowed by a bunch of other new releases when it comes out, but this one really deserves an audience.

Very underrated. One of the better films I've seen all year.

Though it's tagged as a romantic comedy, 'Prime' falls in between a comedy and a serious drama. What I liked about it is that it's a lot less sugar-coated than the usual romantic comedy flicks and more realistic (but that makes it predictable too). As a director Younger does an adequate job but he could have made the script tighter as 'Prime' does drag in the middle (only to pick up in the end). The dialogues are quite interesting and the therapy sessions are fun to watch but a few of the jokes fall flat. Meryl Streep does a good enough job (but she's not at her best and why are her eyes always reddish?) as Rafi's therapist and David's opinionated mother. Bryan Greenberg holds his own in a film with two established actresses. But, 'Prime' belongs to Uma Thurman all the way. She is simply terrific as the vulnerable Rafi and her transformation up till the end is effectively portrayed. On the whole, 'Prime' is a decent film with good performances. Not bad for a one-time watch.

Meryl Streep is the closest actress we've got to the great old stars of yesteryear. Bette Davis comes to mind. Meryl was trim and sexy a couple of years a ago in "Adaptation" now in "Prime" she's a matronly Jewish mom filled with sense and sensibility. She is also very funny and the main reason to see this Jewish American farce. When she's on, we're on. I believed and enjoyed her predicament. I only wish the script, dealing with the relationship of Uma Thurman and Bryan Greenberg had been a bit smarter and more engaging. I bought that the sex was great and that Uma was discovering herself through this younger lover but their intimacy is clumsy and their dialogue very slight. It is as if the two Kauffman's of "Adaptation" were at work here and that the scenes involving Meryl were written by one and the scenes with the lovers by the other. The former ones however makes the evening a very pleasant one.

"Prime" has a number of things going for it that many romantic comedies these days lack. It features a new permutation on the old mistaken-identity plot: 37-year-old divorcée Rafi (Uma Thurman) starts dating carefree 23-year-old David (Bryan Greenberg), neither of them realizing that he is the son of her therapist Lisa (Meryl Streep). There are moments of real wit, the love story is charming without being sentimentally cloying, and the film takes a pleasingly mature, realistic approach to romance.

However, "Prime" also makes many wrong turns along the way. It's never sure how deeply it wants to explore the serious issues raised by its plot—age differences in relationships, inter-religious dating (David is Jewish), and the ethics of Lisa continuing to be Rafi's therapist. Sometimes, it treats these themes with seriocomic intelligence. At other times, it ignores them in favor of sitcom humor involving David's jerky best friend or Rafi's gay co-workers.

"Prime" eventually becomes David's story, focusing on how dating Rafi helps him mature. But this often seems like the wrong choice. Cheerful David is the least conflicted of the three main characters, and Greenberg, while a competent actor, doesn't have Thurman- or Streep- level charisma. Thus, even though this clearly wasn't the intent, many David-centered scenes feel like padding. The best parts of the movie are the scenes between the two actresses: Streep's awkward, pained reactions as Thurman glowingly describes her new boyfriend are priceless.