Meryl gives advice…whether or not it’s asked for.
Writer/director Greta Gerwig’s re-working of Little Women may have been the remake no one was asking for, but it certainly ended up being the surprise we never knew we needed. What once seemed like an intriguing follow-up to her stunning directorial debut is now a critical and audience smash that is poised to bring her the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Gerwig’s re-interpretation of the classic text brings with it a newfound humor and poetry thanks to her refreshing screenplay and a top cast which includes Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Timothee Chalamet, Laura Dern and Meryl Streep, who proves to be a riot as Aunt March.
It isn’t often that the grand dame of the cinema takes a supporting role in a film, but needless to say that when she does, Streep is often still one of its greatest assets. That’s true now as much as it was the last time the three-time Oscar winner took a bit of a back seat in the role of another overbearing loved one meddling in the lives of the younger generation; 2005’s romantic comedy Prime.
Written and directed by Ben Younger, Prime is the story of the recently divorced 30-something Rafi (Uma Thurman), who is feeling lost after the collapse of her marriage with only her sympathetic therapist Lisa (Streep) to listen to her. But Lisa has frustrations of her own, specifically her aimless 20-something son David (Bryan Greenberg) and his inability to settle down and create a solid life for himself. As fate would have it, Rafi and David accidentally meet through mutual friends and a romance quickly blossoms, changing both their lives. When Lisa discovers what has happened, as well as the fact that neither Rafi nor David know of her ties to the other, it takes all her strength to keep it a secret.
Even if some still have trouble associating Streep with comedy, there’s no denying that 99% of the laughs within Prime belong to her. There’s a good deal of levity early on at watching Lisa and David have one of the kind of never ending heart to hearts which Jewish mothers and sons find themselves in with the former fretting over the latter’s life choices. It’s when Lisa discovers that a relationship between Rafi and her son has occurred when the laughs really start. Because of the nature of her profession, Lisa must keep it a secret to herself, revealing nothing to the blissfully unaware couple. This leads to plenty of moments featuring Rafi in session after session with Lisa struggling to maintain her composure and ease as she hears about how David has given her patient a sexual re-awakening. “Did you ever think I would be this satisfied,” asks a joyous Rafi. “No, no, no, not like this,” replies a wide-eyed Lisa staring aimlessly into the floor. Watching her try to conceal the secret outside office hours is likewise just as hilarious. A trip to a department store sees Lisa have a near run-in with the couple causing her to pull her and her husband (John Rothman) down to the ground and hide behind a bed. “Is it a client,” asks Lisa’s husband. “No, it’s my lover. Yes, it’s a client,” Lisa silently scowls back. Eventually, Lisa can take it no longer as both her duty as a professional and her instinct as a mother have worn her down in the face of this secret, leaving her spouting one tragically funny line after another. “You were so right about Jewish men,” Rafi says during a session. “I mean, of course you know. You’re married to one,” she adds with glee. “Yes, but he has ADD,” Lisa tiredly replies as she wonders whether or not to finally say what she knows.
The marketing for Prime makes the movie look as if it exists solely around Lisa and its central gag. While it couldn’t quite be considered a garden path, there’s no doubt that Prime ventures into something far more substantial than its somewhat farcical plot suggests. The laughs are there, but Prime is fundamentally a thoughtful exploration into May/December romance in the early 21st century. The movie’s screenplay gives us two people at different ends of the spectrum. Rafi is in her later 30s, divorced and starting over, while David is in his early 20s and getting by with no plan in sight. Both Rafi and David are blank slates of sorts, not really fitting in anywhere, making them all the more attractive to one another, forming an undeniable bond. On some level, the couple knows that pairings such as theirs have a definite shelf life. But that notion gets pushed to the side in the face of what the two give each other emotionally. This romance, despite its obvious obstacles, can’t help but feel right for both of them. Rafi and David are what each other needs at that specific time and place in their lives. Prime looks at it’s two lovestruck central characters with both affection and honesty, allowing them to think and speak in a way which rings true for the genre, but always feels real. “How old are you,” Rafi asks David on their first date. “Actually, I don’t speak Vietnamese. Why do you ask,” he replies. “Are you being evasive,” she asks back. “I am trying,” answers a nervous David. The excitement, curiosity and tenderness that comes with any new couple exploring each other as people is there and made all the more interesting due to their different places in life. Yet neither can deny the ultimate stumbling block regarding their future, an area in which they couldn’t differ more. While one of them wants to believe they are the answer, the other is never quite sure.
The three leads of Prime couldn’t have been more well-suited for their roles. Thurman was never at her loveliest as a woman frustrated at still having to navigate romance, while injecting her with some much needed hope. Greenberg makes for an appealing counterpart for Thurman as a young man reluctantly looking for his own place in the world. David could very well have been seen as a slacker, but Greenberg makes him more than that through an empathy that suggests an old soul underneath. But it’s Streep who steals the show, scoring virtually every laugh in Prime through a perpetual state of wide-eyed disbelief which only grows funnier by the minute. The way she handles her own character’s transformation may have been easy to miss had the actress not conveyed it in the most simple, but effective of ways.
Autumn 2005 was not the most profitable of times for non-blockbuster films, which is probably why Prime didn’t connect with moviegoers, who noticed it, but not enough to actually make a trip to the theater for it. Critics on the other hand were a little kinder to Prime, giving it some pretty decent reviews that commended the cast, script and overall comment on the genre. All in all however, another flop for the rom-com genre.
Nowadays Prime is mainly remembered as one of those random titles which makes up Streep’s pre- Devil Wears Prada resurgence. But the movie should be looked back on as more than that. Prime is actually one of the few genre entries that gives romantic comedies a good name. Not only does it have both humor and a photogenic couple at its center, but it looks at the state of romance from a more honest and slightly ethereal filter than some of its predecessors. By the time the film plays out its final scene, there’s a sense of catharsis, melancholy and unmistakable beauty regarding both of the characters and the journey they’ve shared. More than any other moment which has come before, it’s here where Prime proves itself to be grounded in a kind of reality most other genre efforts think they exist in but seldom ever do.