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PLOT: A New York psychiatrist freaks out when her newly single, 37-year-old female patient starts dating the shrink's boytoy son, in their case without their knowing about the connection.
One and one make three in Prime. That may be lousy math but it adds up to a clever romantic comedy equation in the hands of filmmaker Ben Younger. He turns what could have been a silly romp into something bigger and more beautiful, something that embraces both laughter and tears.
Actually, all the numbers in Prime are wonky. Casting Uma Thurman as "the older woman" in a love relationship is pushing credulity anyway, even if she is 35 in real life. The bloom of youth still radiates in her translucent skin.
Thurman is the first one in the equation (replacing Sandra Bullock, who dropped out in a struggle over script changes). Thurman plays a 37-year-old, newly single and still hurtin' New Yorker. By her own account, the actress poured a lot of her own anguish into the performance, although Younger chose the less emotional takes for his final comedy cut.
The second one in the equation is an interesting new actor named Bryan Greenberg (best known among TV audiences for a recurring role on One Tree Hill). Although he is 27 in real life, he plays a callow 23-year-old man-boy who falls into an unlikely romance with Thurman. She is attracted to his youthful vitality, his sexual energy and his talent as a still-to-be-discovered painter.
Both Thurman and Greenberg craft lovely performances. They are funny, light and imbued with the human touch, as if their characters were alive.
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Once you put the one and the one together in a wobbly romantic liaison, you get the third, played by Meryl Streep. Dowdy and dithering and disapproving, she is the mother to Greenberg and the pyschiatrist to Thurman. That puts her into a professional and personal conflict that she keeps secret, the fuel for the comedy.
The plotting keeps both Greenberg and Thurman's characters from knowing the truth. But we know.
Streep, who steals scenes shamelessly simply by being egoless and superb, is also a quintessential Jewish mother of the kind that Woody Allen could have created. Not only does she fret about her son's chosen profession, not only does she find the lovers' age difference problematic, but her son's girl is a shiksa!
The conflict is especially poignant because Streep's shrink holds a genuine affection for Thurman -- just not as the woman for her son. The comedy is spiked when Thurman starts delivering details about her lover's sexual prowess. Just what every mother wants to hear!
Manhattan's Upper East Side is the appropriate milieu for the story to play out. Younger, a born-and-raised New Yorker himself, shot the film at home in the city. Gotham becomes a bona fide character, adding flavour and context for the scenario.
If there are quibbles -- there are almost always quibbles -- it is that the people outside of the core threesome do not seem to carry much weight, particularly the immature Greenberg buddy played by rote by Jon Abrahams.
And the film ends oddly, leaving a bittersweet taste.
BOTTOM LINE: While it is too episodic and awkward at the end to really sing, Ben Younger's serious romantic comedy has a lot to offer, including a taste of reality.
(This film is rated PG)