PRIME gives new meaning to the word "dull." Trying to stay awake while viewing it is like watching a television in which the volume and the color are set way too low. Don't be surprised if you find yourself looking for some knob that could boost the movie's energy and pacing. Although some of the negative reviews have called it a sitcom, most sitcoms are at least over-the-top and full of life. PRIME is as dead as any body at the morgue.
The film stars Uma Thurman as Rafi, a thirty-seven-year-old bombshell who, after her recent divorce, has just fallen for David, a twenty-three-year-old hunk. In a completely generic performance, Bryan Greenberg plays David. Don't you just love it when movies feature incredibly beautiful people who have dating issues? David lives with his grandmother in a New York apartment in which the furniture is all encased in heavy plastic. Plastic -- just the fabric of this film.
The very small and easy to guess twist is that Lisa (Meryl Streep), Rafi's dorky therapist, is David's mother. The movie tries to derive all of its very limited charms from awkward conversations between patient and doctor about sex, since Lisa quickly finds out about the relationship while Rafi remains clueless. There is also lots of wasted energy about David and Lisa's religion. Lisa, being very, very Jewish wants to make sure that her son marries someone of the right faith. This warmed-over and days-old Woody Allen humor isn't the least bit funny or cute.
About the only time the movie breaks out of its timid mold is when it starts throwing cream pies, but that joke hasn't been funny in at least fifty years, if it ever was in the first place.
The story's one laugh -- well, more of a small giggle -- comes when Rafi first finds out how young her young man is. "I have T-shirts older than you," she laughs. Another plot concerns her being "on the clock," needing to get pregnant while her eggs are still fertile. It is no more effective than the rest of the sorry story.
"You sound like an after-school special," David complains to his mom about midway through the movie -- when, if I had been smart, I would have walked out. You might say that PRIME is like an after-school special, except they are usually a lot more interesting.
PRIME runs 1:45. It is rated PG-13 for "sexual content including dialogue, and for language" and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
