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'Prime' makes audiences work too hard for the humor
by Eleanor Ringel Gillespie

Writer-director Ben Younger wants to be Woody Allen in the worst way. Unfortunately, he's gone about it in the worst way. He's made "Prime," a kind of made-for-TV Woody movie, circa "Manhattan." Younger's Manhattan is a wondrous place of Antonioni retrospectives, friendly lines snaking around a neighborhood bakery (in this case, the well-known Magnolia Bakery on Bleeker Street), and the occasional pickup basketball game. A city of bright lights and bashful, age-inappropriate romantics. But Younger, though talented, is no Allen. Read the full review

TO SUM UP
It's love at first site when Rafi (Uma Thurman), a recently divorced 37-year-old career woman from Manhattan, meets Dave (Bryan Greenberg), a talented 23-year-old painter from Brooklyn. But little does Rafi know that her young beau is the son of her therapist (Meryl Streep).

FILM FACTS ...

Focus Features

'Prime'

Director: Ben Younger
Starring: Meryl Streep, Uma Thurman, Bryan Greenberg, Jon Abrahams, Jerry Adler
Run time: 106 minutes
Release date: Oct. 28, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for sexual content including dialogue, and for language.
See showtimes

On the web
Official movie site
View the trailer
Trailers require Quicktime

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READ THE REVIEW

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: C
"Prime's fate is sealed by the inconsequential Greenberg, a JFK Jr. look-alike who's simply out of his league — with both Streep and Thurman."

Read the full review

Cox News Service: C-
"A one-trick pony that (writer/director Ben) Younger rode straight into the ground — with plenty of help from his cast, most of whom occupied the saddle like a sack of potatoes. Stale ones at that."