Prime (2005) Reviews

• Feels like real life on screen

  tragic_slider2006-11-25

  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.

• Not the typical Hollywood rom-com.

  ciuca2006-05-21

  Prime stars Deer Hunter actress Meryl Streep and Pulp Fiction actress Uma Thurman. It was written and directed by Boiler Room writer/director Ben Younger. I thought this movie was really good. The acting by Streep and Thurman was incredible. And the story was genius with an unexpected ending. I'm sure you know the typical rom-com. Two people meet, have a great time together, something gets in the way, they break up, they get back together, and they get married and have lots of sex and babies and everything is just wonderful. Well this is different. Halfway through you are just positively convinced that this is how Prime is going to end. But it doesn't. That's all I'm going to say; see for yourself. Meryl Streep was hilarious as the Jewish mother/shrink. I loved her. Besides the un-clichéd ending, she is the highlight of the movie. Overall I thought this was a really good movie. It was one of the few movies where I didn't look at the clock to figure how much time there is left of the movie. It was entertaining and cliché-free. I really enjoyed it and I highly recommend it.

• Way Better Than It Has Any Right to Be

  botner2005-10-15

  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.

• old-hat, prejudiced and lacking a constructive message

  nbwys8172006-09-14

  Failing to see anything remotely comical about this movie, I found it just rattled out old stereotypes about age and race without confronting these issues in any kind of depth. What was particularly disappointing is to see again that Hollywood still fails to confront the fact that meaningful, long-term relationships exist between partners in which the woman is significantly older than the man (including a large number of theatrical pairings). Not only was the relationship portrayed utterly shallow, but there was no attempt whatsoever to introduce any discussion of how the various obstacles the couple faced might be overcome. Ultimately, the movie left a string of unanswered 'whys'. Why, for instance, should it be taken for granted that fatherhood would spoil the life of a 24-year-old man, even when he has made the decision himself to go through with it? Why should children be a curse and a life-spoiler? (and is this the message we should be giving young men?) Why should maturity be portrayed as dull and pedestrian, and youth as frivolous and unable to cope with the weightier issues of life? Why did David have to be so pitifully immature when others his age are already in, and enjoying, responsible positions? Does a meaningful, long-term relationship necessarily have to preclude an individual from any kind of adventure of self- realization? The film might have been improved had David and Rafi achieved any kind of a meaningful conversation, but since they failed to do this, being too preoccupied with bedtime gymnastics or quarreling, we were denied any access to the thought-processes behind the decisions they made, particularly the most important decisions, to go for a baby (on David's part), and to separate. Had the couple been shown debating their issues rationally - instead of simply breaking up every time they hit a problem - the film might have given a helpful insight into the nature of relationships. Finally, although this film was obviously trying to set up some kind of a 'this is how things really are, folks' ending, I fail to see why relationship failure is any more realistic a conclusion than happily-ever-after. It's just another all-or-nothing, black-and-white Hollywood oversimplification. Surely a more interesting and unusual ending to such a movie would be to show how people somehow manage to muddle through together, not in dramatic epic fireworks, but in finding new and constructive ways to confront their problems. But Hollywood seems to abhor anything that is not either implausibly romantic or utterly hopeless. In short, this was not a particularly insightful or helpful film.

• Not Bad But Not Especially Compelling Either

  evanston_dad2006-10-09

  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-