The last time I saw a romantic comedy at the theater was early in the summer when I went to see the irredeemably awful “Monster In Law,” a film so bad that I was found weeping in a fetal ball as the end credits rolled, before being wheeled out by theater ushers. Admittedly, I’m probably not the target audience for this genre, though I’m not adverse to it. I like “When Harry Met Sally.” “Sliding Doors” was fun. I will even sit through Hugh Grant fluff “Notting Hill” and “Four Weddings” (though not “Love Actually,” which I thought was crap, factually). Thus, the prospect of seeing “Prime,” a romantic comedy headed by Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep, was not so bad. Recent divorcée Rafi (Thurman) meets and, against her better judgment, falls in love with a significantly younger man, David (Bryan Greenberg). A fast, passionate relationship burgeons, the details of which Rafi confides to her longtime therapist Lisa Metzger (Streep). Eventually, Lisa realizes that the man Rafi is so in love with is, in fact, her son. However, Lisa does not let on, and uses their sessions as a way to gain information on her son and to steer the relationship down a path of her choosing. (She is determined that David will marry a Jew and is not keen on a gentile graphically describing genitals with such zest.)

This screwball scenario works for about 45 minutes. Streep is amusing as the flustered shrink, adept at getting a laugh from a simple twitch or executing a slow-burn punchline. Writer/director Ben Younger, whose “Boiler Room” was a pulsating, raw depiction of immoral Wall Street brokers, shoots New York City with an authentic charm reminiscent of Woody Allen’s Big Apple comic romances. However, soon all this wears as thin as Thurman’s figure, and it becomes apparent that Younger is only treating us to one joke, and he is determined we are going to get it again and again and again. Any conceivable comedy becomes stifled by the wrenchingly slow and lifeless dialogue, especially as the focus shifts more onto the Thurman-Greenberg laugh-free romance rather than Streep’s scene-stealing antics. Indeed, Thurman is not given much to work with, and spends most of the movie making googly eyes at the charismatically stunted Greenberg, whose three modes of expression diffuse any chemistry between the two.

Younger is trying to make a more sophisticated, thoughtful romantic comedy than most of the dirge of this ilk that Hollywood routinely churns out. “Prime” just about manages this. However, the director should look again at the work of Woody Allen if he wants to do more than show us pretty scenes of a beautiful couple holding hands in Central Park. An interesting premise is negated by failure to invest in character and dialogue and to get over the one joke that the script continually parades. Indeed, it’s rather a disappointment that even with Streep and Thurman in the lead roles and direction by someone of certain promise, this movie turns out to be so dull and flaccid.


directed and written by: Ben Younger
starring: Uma Therman, Meryl Streep, Bryan Greenberg
rated PG-13 on appeal for sexual content including dialogue, and for language.