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Prime (2005)

Director: Ben Younger

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From Time Out London

The main attraction for this New York-set romantic comedy is the cast: there’s Meryl Streep as a therapist, Uma Thurman as her client and not a J-Lo or Sarah Jessica Parker in sight. Thurman is 37-year-old Rafi, who starts dating 23-year-old David (Bryan Greenberg) without realising he has a connection to her therapist Lisa. The film strings out the build-up to the reveal by following Rafi and David’s unremarkable relationship step-by-step, only warming to its comic theme when Lisa cottons on to their mutual connection. Streep’s scenes are lightly amusing, but the romance is less than compelling and sharp observations about relationships jostle for space with dull exposition. While the trailers push this as an age-gap comedy, the 14-year difference between Rafi and David isn’t the central theme: in fact the problem is there is no central theme. With its diluted ‘Meet The Parents’-style strand running alongside the diary of a mundane relationship, this is a collection of beefed-up subplots whose believable characters are let down by the narrative’s lack of direction.

Author: Anna Smith

Time Out London Issue 1864: May 10-17 2006

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