Opening Day: 24 November 2005


Synopsis :

Prime is a sophisticated, character comedy set in New York City about Rafi (Uma Thurman), a recently divorced 37-year-old career woman from Manhattan and what happens when Dave (Bryan Greenberg), a talented 23-year-old painter from Brooklyn falls in love with her. The film looks at love from everyone's point-of-view friends, relatives and in this case, Rafi's therapist Lisa (Meryl Streep) and follows all who comes apart and some who pull it together, when 2 people fall in love.

Movie Review:

Ever wonder how a couple actually communicates when they are so in love with each other? Most romantic comedies make the critical mistake of idealising romance. This idealisation encompasses all aspects of the film, from the conversations to the story to the feel-good ending. This has the effect of inducing more audiences to watch it but the enjoyment factor is relatively low. “Prime”, on the other hand, is different. It stands out from the rest of its counterparts in terms of its simplicity, light-hearted dialogues and the emphasis on the vulnerabilities of people. It will win the audience’s attention simply by being frank and profound on the subject of love with an age disparity.

Uma Thurman plays Rafi Gardet, a 37-year-old entertainment worker who is married but available. In a chance encounter, she gets to know a talented artist David Bloomberg (Bryan Greenberg) who turns out to be 14 years her junior. Over time, they fell in love and as their love blossoms, both Rafi and David soon realise that their age gap should be the last thing they should worry about as other circumstantial factors start to arise. It’s not long before cracks start to appear in their relationship. And feelings start to crumble, and patched up again. It’s all this unpredictable upheaval in Rafi’s and David’s relationship that makes the film interesting and keeps the audience guessing.

However, it’s the dialogues in this film that really stands out. The conversations are funny, real and at times, ironic. For avid readers of contemporary romance, it’s interesting to note that the style of dialogue employed in this film is structured along the lines of William Sutcliffe’s “The Love Hexagon” and Mike Gayle’s “My Legendary Girlfriend”. The dialogues are short and crisp, while reflecting all the nuances of love and passion. However, at times, it seems sardonic, seething with frustrations and resignation. Seldom has a film so accurately portrays dialogues in such a truthful light in a no-holds-barred fashion on romance.

It’s interesting to note that Meryl Streep plays the part of Lisa Mitzger, Rafi’s psychologist. And it’s Meryl that makes this film stand out, although Uma scores a close second in terms of acting finesse. Some audience will find it difficult to come to terms with her drastic change in her image from a scheming mum in “The Manchurian Candidate” to being a psychologist with an inner turmoil in this film. Similarly, while Uma Thurman plays a sad married lady in love with a young bloke, it’s hard to shake away the murderous role she took in “Kill Bill”. Nevertheless, it’s the versatility of these two actresses that makes this film an excellent watch.

Director Ben Younger has cleverly and successfully blended a love relationship with psychological therapy sessions (akin to the scenes in “Analyse this / Analyse that”, except that this one’s funnier). His artistic directions have taken the film far. This can be seen in the opening credits of the film where he blends art, romance and the beauty of New York in one go as well as a continuous take where David moves through the various corners of his house in search of his family. The fusion of cinematography, great scores and a great relationship makes this film a must-watch for any romanticist.

This film takes you for a roller-coaster ride. It pumps you with an adrenaline rush of an urge for romance while making you laugh at the idiosyncrasies of people in various professions at the same time. It achieves all this while taking a dig at the psychology vocation. After all the formulaic romantic comedies, it’s good to try something different.

And this is it.

No romantic comedy ever comes this close to being so distinct and memorable.

Movie Rating: -

(“This film should set the benchmark for all romantic comedies.”)

Review by Patrick Tay