Product: Prime
Rating: 4.0
A charming, bittersweet and entertaining romantic comedy
This is a well written, often laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes sad romantic comedy about love and relationships.Writer/Director Ben Younger said that his inspiration for the film was that at one stage he was going out with a woman who was having therapy, and his mother was a therapist. As his mother had remarried and did not share his surname, he asked himself what would happen if his partner accidentally went to his mum for therapy, and then he thought "that's a great idea for a movie."However, although this is indeed one of the major story elements and the source of many of the best laughs in the film, there is quite a lot more to this film than this hugely embarassing coincidence,Uma Thurman plays Raphael (Rafi) Gardet, a 37 year old, highly successful career woman in the fashion industry, who at the start of the film has just got divorced. By chance at a film she is introduced to David Bloomborg (played by David Greenberg), a 23 year old who wants to be an artist. The two are hugely physically attracted to each other: before they realise quite how large the age difference is David invites Rafi out on a date, and although she is very nervous of the difference in age, Rafi enjoys his company so much that they start a passionate affair.As soon as Rafi walks into the office of her therapist Lisa Motzgor (Meryl Streep), Lisa can see that Rafi has met someone who is making her happy. Initialy Lisa is pleased for Rafi and encourages her in the relationship. It is only two or three sessions later, as Rafi starts to pour out details of the relationship, that Lisa first suspects that Rafi may be dating her own son, then confirms that this is indeed the case and realises with horror that she has been encouraging a divorcee more than half again his age to have an affair with her son. This would have been difficult enough for anyone, but to make matters worse, though she is tolerant in most ways Lisa has an extreme hostility bordering on bigotry against mixed marriages and does not want her Jewish son to marry a gentile.This leads to a comedy of embarrassment, with Lisa's behaviour becoming increasingly preposterous as she tries with disastrous lack of success to do what is right for both her son and her client. Meanwhile Rafi is trying to cope with the fact that David is in some ways a wonderful man who can make her very happy, and in other ways much less mature than she needs in a long term partner. All the characters in the film have some difficult decisions to make and at times the film is decidedly bittersweet.The most difficult part of this film to make must have been the ending. Ben Younger and the cast play this in a very grown-up way: some people will like the ending but it will leave others unsatisfied - I can't really say more without giving it away.There is some really good acting in this film. The three main actors, Uma Thurman, Bryan Greenberg and Meryl Streep are all superb. Ato Essandoh delivers a brilliantly memorable cameo as the doorman of the apartment building where Rafi lives. It seems to be compulsory these days for romantic comedies to include an obnoxious sexist lothario as the hero's best friend, and this part is played with slightly more sophistication than usual by Jon Abrahams - at least, he is more sophisticated when he isn't exercising his original technique for dumping a girlfriend by means of a custard pie in her face.Overall this is a very cleverly crafted and entertaining film. Just don't expect it to be all sweetness and light.