(The ads for Prime have foolishly given away the major plot twist; I think the movie will play better if it's left a surprise, so on the off chance that you don't already know it, I'm not going to give it away.)
I am in that small minority of people who don't especially care for Meryl Streep. I find her too mannered, I can always see the actor's thinking beneath her characters, and everything she does is overly prepared and lacking in spontaneity. But Streep in a comedy? A whole different story. She loosens up, and her characters seem real; their movement and dialogue doesn't have that rehearsed quality.
And Streep gives one of her best comic performances in Prime. She is, in fact, the only reason to see the movie.
Streep plays Lisa Metzger, a New York therapist who's helping Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman) get over her recent divorce. Shortly after signing the divorce papers, Rafi begins dating David Bloomberg (Bryan Greenberg), and the relationship gets off to a fabulous start. The only problem, Rafi tells her therapist, is that David is so much younger than she is -- he's 23, she's 37.
Right there, the movie's in trouble. If you're going to tell a story about the mixed emotions of a (slightly) older woman dating a younger man, then for heaven's sake, cast an actress who actually looks older. Uma Thurman is so spectacular looking for her age that Rafi and David feel more like contemporaries than they should. Put an actress in the role who genuinely seems older than David -- imagine Laura Linney, or Catherine Keener, for instance -- and the emotional stakes in that part of the story are instantly higher.
The Rafi/David relationship also falls flat because both actors are miscast. This sort of broad romantic comedy isn't Thurman's strong suit, and though she's trying very hard, it always feels like trying; Greenberg just isn't a very interesting actor, and David has so little personality that it's hard to understand why Rafi's attracted to him in the first place.
But then there's Streep, who is so funny, so true, so human that she almost redeems the movie singlehandedly. She is especially good in the first half of the movie, when Lisa is the only character who knows about the big plot twist; it's a secret that she can't say anything about, and watching her struggle to hide her true feelings in a variety of situations is wildly entertaining.
It's a performance that won't get the attention it deserves come awards season, partly because the movie itself is such lightweight faux-Woody Allen, partly because comedy never does. But it's a performance worth seeing, and even if I can't recommend that you rush right out and see Prime immediately, you should certainly watch for it on cable or DVD.
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