Prime (2005)

A career driven professional from Manhattan is wooed by a young painter, who also happens to be the son of her psychoanalyst.

Director:

Ben Younger

Writer:

Ben Younger

Stars:

Uma Thurman, Meryl Streep, Bryan Greenberg

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Uma Thurman	...	Rafi Gardet
Meryl Streep	...	Lisa Metzger
Bryan Greenberg	...	David Bloomberg
Jon Abrahams	...	Morris
Adriana Biasi	...	Bay Ridge Blonde
David Younger	...	Brother #1
Palmer Brown	...	Brother #2
Zak Orth	...	Randall
Annie Parisse	...	Katherine
Aubrey Dollar	...	Michelle
Jerry Adler	...	Sam
Doris Belack	...	Blanche
Ato Essandoh	...	Damien
David Anzuelo	...	Bodega Counterman
Naomi Aborn	...	Dinah Bloomberg

Storyline

In colorful, bustling modern-day Manhattan, Rafi Gardet, a beautiful 37-year-old photography producer reeling from a recent divorce, meets David Bloomberg, a handsome 23-year-old painter recently out of college. Rafi's therapist, Dr. Lisa Metzger, who is working to help Rafi overcome her fears of intimacy, finds out that Rafi's new lover is--unfortunately for Lisa--her only son, David. Both David and Rafi must contend with their 14-year age gap, vastly different backgrounds and the demands of David's traditional mother. Despite their intense attraction, the charmed couple soon realizes that vastly different ages and backgrounds create much conflict. A Jewish hip-hop lover and closet painter who still lives with his grandparents, David has little in common with Rafi--a non-practicing Catholic from a wealthy, broken family who travels in the sophisticated, high-end world of fashion.

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Plot Keywords:

cat | therapist client relationship | older woman younger man relationship | mother son relationship | 2000s | 

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Taglines:

She thought she could tell her therapist anything. But she's about to discover that she's already said too much...

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 on appeal for sexual content including dialogue, and for language

Did You Know?

Trivia

The dog sitting at Meryl Streep's feet as she is eating the pastrami sandwich with her husband is, in fact, her own dog - Digby.

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Goofs

Two obviously-different red Chrysler convertibles are used in the early sequence of David and Morris driving to Morris' ex-girlfriend's house. Close-up dialogue scenes filmed in the car show a large, conspicuous high-mount brake lamp on the car's trunk in the middle background, but exterior driving shots of the convertible show a different model, with no trunk light at all.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Lisa Metzger: Oh, I'm sorry. It's so hot in here, and I can't figure this stupid thing!

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Connections

References Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

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Soundtracks

Lay Low
Written and Performed by Mark Ronson and Debi Nova (as Debbie Nova)
Courtesy of Allido Records

User Reviews

Not Bad But Not Especially Compelling Either

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-

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Russia] Universal [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 October 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Prime

Filming Locations:

Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$22,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,220,935, 30 October 2005

Gross USA:

$22,827,153

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$67,937,494

Company Credits

Production Co:

Prime Film Productions LLC, Stratus Film Co., Team Todd

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1