Petites confidences (à ma psy)

This is a situational movie. People get into and out of interesting situations and you might be amused by it, feel romantic or feel bad, but this does not define the romantic comedy genre as I see it. You don't watch this movie to feel good about the romantic endeavors that litter your brain but are almost never real, nor do you watch it to laugh at what is going on.

I especially liked the fact that Uma Thruman didn't play the role of the stupid blonde that she got in some of her latest movies and also that the movie tried to capture reality more than fantastic situations that no one can relate to and that always end in happy ending.

Mix Jewishness, visits to the psychologist, divorcées in the fashion business having gay friends and dating younger guys and you get ... New York. :) Well, this is a good movie. A lot of the clichés one would expect in a New Yorkish movie are broken or not existent and the ones that are left are well blended into the plot.

There isn't much to say about the plot that wouldn't spoil it, so I will not say anything. Uma Thurman plays well, Merryl Streep is always a good actress, but in this movie manages not the be annoying as well, which I think is a step up for her. My wife asked me to keep it, so I guess if I enjoyed it and also did she, then it's a winner all around.

Midway through "Prime," there's a scene in which Uma Thurman's character, Rafi, comes to her boyfriend's (Bryan Greenberg) house for dinner with his family. His mom, played by Meryl Streep, as usual giving a performance better than the movie it's in, has up until very recently been Rafi's therapist. The women must now navigate very tricky terrain. A relationship that had been maternal in one way has now become maternal in a very different way. The therapist loves Rafi and thinks she's a wonderful person, but she also knows much about her that prospective mothers-in-law don't necessarily know about their sons' girlfriends, things that compound the problems raised by Rafi's not only being 14 years older than the son, but also decidedly NOT Jewish.

I wish more of "Prime" had been about this relationship, the one between Thurman and Streep. As it is, the movie feels like it has two separate halves that the young director/writer Ben Younger doesn't successfully bring together into a comprehensive whole. The rest of the film follows Rafi and her boyfriend as they try to build a relationship despite the age difference. Nothing about this half of the movie is new or fresh, and Younger never convinced me why I should care. I was too distracted by the fact that he had a wonderful actress like Streep in his film and didn't seem to know what to do with her.

"Prime" is far from a bad film, and given its indifferent reception when it was released in theatres, I actually expected it to be worse than it was. But it is a rather half-baked film, and not one you need to spend a lot of mental energy on, which in this case is a criticism, because it raises a lot of interesting ideas that it never explores.

Grade: B-

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.

I happened to catch the second half on HBO one night. I saw the entire movie a few nights later. I could easily watch it through again -- I was really drawn into the movie. I had to look it up on IMDb just because I was thinking about it so much.

There's a lot of negative reviews here, much more than the movie deserves. Movies are like people -- some you despise, many leave you indifferent, and some just really *click*. My roommate came back from "Saw III" hyper and proclaiming it the "BEST movie EVER!!!" -- I can guarantee you he wouldn't care for this. "Prime" also doesn't have any of the typical emotional manipulations found in your average rom-com. It makes do with much subtler if still dramatic material. For example: the meeting between Rafi and David is low-key, slightly awkward, nothing like, say, the Ferris wheel scene in "The Notebook". Ryan Gosling threatening suicide to get a date is certainly entertaining, but it also leaves me slightly detached, too aware this is a story for my viewing pleasure.

"Prime" is the anti-"Grease". There's nothing STYLIZED about it; no fairy-tale ending. If you can do with such accoutrements you'll be sucked in, especially if you can relate to the very upper-middle-class New York viewpoint that permeates it. Another reviewer was quite insightful in comparing it to "Annie Hall".

As for the relentless disparagement of Bryan Greenberg in the male lead: you've got to be kidding me!!!! He doesn't play the role the way, say, a young Al Pacino would play it. His persona is understated, relaxed almost to the point of passivity, slightly unsure, sarcastic and naive and vulnerable all at once. Completely believable as a 23-year-old who would appeal to and be attracted to a 37-yr-old divorcée. A more typical male lead his age wouldn't be dating Uma Thurman, he'd be charming Natalie Portman or Jessica Alba. Take the scene where he's trying to connect with the stoic doorman -- I totally cracked up and at the same time couldn't help but admire how true-to-life it felt. Everything about that scene bespoke an upper-middle-class 20-something living with his grandparents and lacking direction.

Not to mention that the intimacy between Rafi and David felt so natural that I felt convinced that Uma and Bryan had something off-screen during filming. The way they looked at each other, shared each other's space... the lust didn't seem acted, I'll put it that way.

To Ben Younger: despite all the people out there who don't get it, there are some of us who do. You really did an amazing job, and I doubt I'll ever forget "Bubbe" knocking herself with that frying pan... Lol.

"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.