In Prime, Meryl Streep portrays the Jewish Mother rather convincingly as Lisa Metzger, a therapist who discovers her patient (Uma Thurman), who's 37, divorced and definitely not Jewish, is dating her 23-year-old son (Bryan Greenberg). Sure, she'd rather her son be a CPA or a lawyer than follow his true calling as an artist and worries about the religion of her future grandchildren over a pastrami on rye, but Streep refrains from beating the stereotype to death. The relationship between Rafi (Thurman) and David (Greenberg) plays out while Lisa keeps her discovery to herself, nervously downing countless glasses of water as Rafi unknowingly gushes about David's beautiful penis in the weekly psychoanalysis sessions.
Even with his winning smile and killer body aside, Greenberg's character is hard not to love. He's in his first grown-up relationship, sincerely struggling to make it work despite the age gap, his controlling mother and visions of his dead Bubbe whacking herself in the head with a frying pan. (That's what he gets for dating a shiksa.) Director Ben Younger, of Boiler Room fame, succeeds in his first venture into the romantic comedy genre. The older woman/younger man formula does not come without cliches, but Prime has some hilarious moments and at the same time brings realistic issues of relationships, religion and family expectations to the surface.
