Product: Prime
Rating: 3.0
3 1/2 Stars: You Always Hurt The One You Love
Rafi Gardet (the impossibly tall, lean and beautiful Uma Thurman) is depressed, trying to rebound from a failed relationship and seeking the help of a down-to-earth, yenta-like psychiatrist, Lisa Metzger (Meryl Streep). She is not looking for nor ready to enter into a relationship when she meets David Bloomberg (newcomer Bryan Greenberg) and, despite the age difference (she is 37, he is 23), despite the still gaping wounds of her divorce...she responds to David's youth, vigor and just goes for it.The sessions between Lisa and Rafi are fun: both actresses being as charming and real as possible which is apporpriate for this style of romantic comedy. Bryan Greenberg is a real find: polished beyond his years and able to stand toe-to-toe, acting-wise with both Thurman and Streep.Director Ben Younger (the testosterone-driven "Boiler Room") does a good job of juggling the social and moral motifs of the younger man/ older woman/ Jewish/gentile relationship but Rafi, though she certainly enjoys the attention and the always willing to please/adoration coming from David, never really feels comfortable in the relationship. And Younger should have explored this more as it doesn't only have to do with the age difference but with Raft's basic urge to run from anything that is good in her life. We get hints as to why this is throughout the film but Younger explores none of these in depth."Prime" is not...but it is a good film that unfortunately only operates on the surface of all the swirling emotions of this film: a concrete exploration of the whys/the hows and the wherefores of Rafi, David and Lisa would have been a better, more incisive and satisfying way to go.