Themes: Therapy, Doctors and Patients, Age Disparity Romance
Main Cast: Meryl Streep, Uma Thurman, Bryan Greenberg, Jon Abrahams, Zak Orth
Release Year: 2005
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Two women get a new and unusual perspective on the doctor/patient relationship in this romantic comedy. Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman) is a woman in her mid-thirties who has recently gone through a messy divorce. Rafi has been seeing an analyst, Lisa Metzger (Meryl Streep), as she struggles to get back on her feet emotionally and look for new love. Rafi meets a man named David Bloomberg (Bryan Greenberg), and the two quickly hit it off, but Rafi isn't sure if she should pursue the relationship, since David is only 23 years old. After discussing the burgeoning romance during one of their weekly sessions, Lisa urges Rafi to take a plunge with David, and not be afraid to seek out the companionship she needs. However, there's something about David that Lisa doesn't know -- he's her son. Rafi doesn't know that Lisa is David's mother, either, and both psychiatrist and patient are thrown for a loop when they learn the truth. Prime was originally intended to star Sandra Bullock as Rafi, but she dropped out of the project shortly before filming began, reportedly due to disagreements with the director over the script, with Thurman taking her place. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Ben Younger's Prime fails as a credible romance, but has a pair of performances that make it somewhat worthwhile. Uma Thurman is an actress whose beauty consistently makes people underestimate her talent. She has made her thirtysomething divorcée thrillingly alive with the promise of a new love. During the therapy scenes where she discusses the joy and pleasure she gets from this new relationship, she quivers with such happiness that the audience will be swept along by her feelings. Thurman gets pitch-perfect support from Meryl Streep, who allows her therapist character to take a motherly pride on behalf of her patient, a maternal instinct that warps entertainingly when she learns the identity of her patient's boyfriend. Prime fails because the character of the young twentysomething lover is always either a perfect young man or a callous immature jerk. There is never a scene in which the actor (Bryan Greenberg) is forced to play these two poles of his character at the same time. He is always 100-percent selfish or 100-percent selfless, making it harder and harder to accept that Thurman would hang onto him for as long as she does seeing as her divorce has taught her when a relationship is dead. Prime is a well-acted film that fails to make losing love as interesting as discovering it. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Paul D. Kelly - Art Director, Ellen Lewis - Casting, Brad Jenkel - Co-producer, Anthony Katagas - Co-producer, Melissa Toth - Costume Designer, Michael Lerman - First Assistant Director, Ben Younger - Director, Kristina Boden - Editor, Mark Gordon - Executive Producer, Bob Yari - Executive Producer, Ryan Shore - Composer (Music Score), Jim Black - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ted Chu - Camera Operator, Mark Ricker - Production Designer, William Rexer II - Cinematographer, Suzanne Todd - Producer, Jennifer Todd - Producer, Tod A. Maitland - Sound/Sound Designer, Ben Younger - Screenwriter, Paul Soucek - Supervising Sound Editor, Carol Silverman - Set Decorator
Rafi (Uma Thurman) is a recently divorced, 37-year-old career woman from Manhattan who becomes romantically involved with David (Bryan Greenberg), a talented 23-year-old Jewish painter from the Upper West Side. Rafi shares all her secrets with her therapist Lisa (Meryl Streep) who, unbeknownst to Rafi, is David's mother. Lisa, supportive of Rafi's relationship with a younger man, discovers the connection and finds herself not only faced with the ethical and moral dilemma of counseling David's girlfriend, but also the reality that she feels differently about the relationship now that she knows her son is involved. Lisa consults her own therapist, and they decide that it is in the best interest of her patient Rafi for Lisa to continue treatment, as long as the relationship remains the "fling" it appears to be.
However, Lisa soon realizes that the relationship is serious, and tells Rafi that she is David's mother. Feeling embarrassed and feeling betrayed, Rafi ends her treatment with Lisa. Their differences causing problems between them, Rafi and David break up. A couple of weeks later, David is enjoying a night on the town with his best friend; he gets drunk and ends up sleeping with Sue, Rafi's friend from work. The same day, after bumping into each other at the supermarket and going back to David's place, David and Rafi start seeing each other again. They also try to make the relationship stronger by going to a Friday night dinner at Lisa's apartment. The rift between Rafi and David's mother is patched up, although Rafi brings up the possibility of her and David having children, to which Lisa reacts strongly. A few days later, Rafi discovers that David had slept with Sue, and David and Rafi fight. After sulking for some time, David goes to seek Lisa's help as both his mother and as a therapist. She advises him to do what he can to keep the relationship, because it was through Rafi that Lisa was able to understand David's career as an artist. David goes back to Rafi to apologize and offer to give her a child because that is what she wants the most. Rafi realizes how deep David's love must be for him to make such a sacrifice. Ultimately, they both realize that love is not enough to keep a relationship going, and they break up.
A year later, David and his friend are leaving a restaurant — the first restaurant where he and Rafi had a proper date. Going back to retrieve his forgotten hat, he spots Rafi but she does not see him; he gets his hat, rushes out the door, and hides. He defrosts the glass a bit to watch her, and she turns around and sees him. They share a smile before parting ways.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack is a mix of different music genres such as jazz and pop. The composer of this soundtrack is Ryan Shore.
Ghostwriter (Remix) - Performed By RJD2
In A Sentimental Mood - Performed By Duke Ellington And John Coltrane
Peach Trees - Performed By Rufus Wainwright
Rafi And David - Composed By Ryan Shore
Fake French - Performed By Le Tigre
Isn't This A Lovely Day - Performed By Stacey Kent
Still Got Me - Performed By Daniel Merriweather
Shelter - Performed By Ray LaMontagne
Laylo - Performed By Debbie Nova
Try - Performed By Sidsel Endresen / Bugge Wesseltoft
The ages of the two characters are 23 and 37 which are both prime numbers. (The actors actually were 27 and 35. Bullock would have been 41.)
The title might refer to a conversation between Thurman and Streep's characters, where the therapist encourages the patient to have the affair, saying that she is in her prime, her sexual peak.
The role of Rafi was originally going to be played by Sandra Bullock. Bullock completed rehearsals with the Director and Greenberg, but pulled out just before filming began, because she wanted major script changes, and the director was not willing to change the script.
Bryan Greenberg's trip to New York to film this movie is documented as part of HBO's semi-reality series Unscripted.
