Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Prime

(2005)

He (Brian Greenberg) is 27 years old … okay, 23, really. She (Uma Thurman) is also 27 … no, actually, more like 30. Though if you want to know the truth, she is 37. She is seeing a psychiatrist (Meryl Streep) to get her through a recent divorce. His Jewish mother is a psychiatrist. Oops! Meryl learns her son is dating her shiksa client, and must deal with the moral and therapeutic consequences. Comedic complications ensue. Much of it really is funny. We are used to seeing romantic comedies starring the likes of Harrison Ford with women like Anne Heche (56 and 30 at the time they made Six Days Seven Nights) but older woman/younger man is fairly rare, as I was telling Mrs. Robinson the other day. (You’re trying to seduce me … aren’t you?) This tension really did keep me wondering, how would it all come out? (I won’t tell you.) The problems of such a couple, even without a mother who desperately wants a nice Jewish girl for her son, are not insurmountable, but few would disagree they are significant. I enjoyed the movie, but it’s a minor effort. Meryl Streep shows once again that she is as handy at comedy as she is at everything else. And I love Uma Thurman.