When you make a website about movies, and write movie reviews for magazines, this means you read a lot about most of the movies that come out. When I'm going to the cinema and there's a movie playing I don't know that much about, I have the habit of finding some information about it, so I know what to expect. This makes going to a particular movie a safe bet, but I never really realized how much of the unexpectedness of going to the movies that ruins. You see, when we went to the weekly Sneak Preview in our local cinema and Prime started, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Yes, I knew Meryll Streep and Uma Thurman were in it, but I didn't know anything about the story. Which turned out to be a good thing, because now I was about to get one of the nicest surprises of all my movie going years.
You see, Prime is an incredibly fun movie, and a movie that made me laugh more than any movie I saw in the cinema since Dodgeball. The fact that (I'll give you a minor spoiler warning now, because I'm about to say some things which the trailer already ruined, but which you might not know yet if you, like me, knew nothing about this movie) the movie has a great twist about one thirds through made it all the more fun, since I did not see it coming at all. The fact that I had such a good time makes me think if I should just stop reading about the movies I'm about to see, so that I can be surprised more often.
Prime is about Rafi (Thurman), a 37 year old woman whose husband has just left her. She cannot take the loss and has some hearty sessions with her psychiatrist, Lisa (Streep), with whom she has a real bond and who has plenty of great advice for her. So when Rafi meets the 23 year old David (Bryan Greenberg, an actor I had never seen before and who was another nice surprise) and worries about him being much younger than she is, it's Lisa who tells her to go for it. Reluctantly, Rafi agrees and starts to feel more alive than she has felt in many years. Sure, David may act like a little kid every now and then, but he is so full of energy that a permanent smile seems etched into Rafi's face.
There's a moral dilemma here. Do I: 1) Tell you more about the story, spoiling the surprise (which like I said has already been spoiled in the trailer), or 2) not tell you anything and risk you thinking this is just some sappy love drama, or worse, a sappy romantic comedy? Well, I'm going to go for option 2 anyway, and I will try to convince you of the opposite of what was said there. When the movie started, I was also worried that this would be either a sappy love drama or a sappy romantic comedy, but I couldn't be further from the truth. Prime is hilarious. I was snorting and guffawing frequently during this movie and I was not the only one. The regular Sneak Preview crowd, always out for new horror or action movies and prone to walk away when the movie on display is not to their liking, voiced their approval loudly. It's been a long time since I last heard a crowd in a cinema enjoy themselves this much.
The acting in the movie is spot on. Streep is great as the psychiatrist, Greenberg funny as the love interest, and Uma Thurman really surprised me in a positive way. I have never really been a big fan of her, to be honest (must have something to do with her 'performance' in Batman and Robin), but in this movie she is funny, sexy and more than worthy of all the praise she is receiving. Yes, another surprise I got when watching this movie, and thus, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It does sag a little bit here and there and Greenberg is not so good when it comes to faking phonecalls, but apart from that Prime is a very good example of how a refreshing romantic comedy should be made.
Just leave the trailer alone before you go see it!
****
Directed by: Ben Younger
Written by: Ben Younger
Starring: Meryl Streep, Uma Thurman, Bryan Greenberg, Jon Abrahams
Running Time: 105 minutes
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