Tagline: A therapeutic comedy.
Prime movie storyline. Starring Oscar nominee Uma Thurman (Kill Bill: Vols. I and II, Pulp Fiction) as Rafi, a 37-year-old photography producer reeling from a recent divorce, who meets David (Bryan Greenberg, television’s One Tree Hill), a 23-year-old painter recently out of college, Prime explores what happens when love at first sight meets the day-to-day realities of an adult relationship.
Oscar-winning actor Meryl Streep (The Hours, Adaptation) portrays Rafi’s therapist, Dr. Lisa Metzger. Lisa, who is working to help Rafi overcome her fears of intimacy, finds out that Rafi’s new lover is-unfortunately for Lisa-her only son, David.
David and Rafi must contend with a 14-year age gap, vastly different backgrounds and the demands of David’s traditional mother. A frank look at a modern, urban romance, this film candidly and humorously explores the joy of falling head over heels for someone-and the struggles that inevitably follow.
Prime is written and directed by Ben Younger (Boiler Room) and produced by Team Todd, headed by sisters Jennifer Todd and Suzanne Todd. The film is both Team Todd and Younger’s follow-up to the 2000 debut feature, Boiler Room, an energetic drama about Wall Street hustlers that starred Giovanni Ribisi and Vin Diesel. In this new kind of love story, Younger explores a softer side of New York.
At first, David and Rafi’s blossoming relationship appears to be an ideal match, as each unexpectedly fulfills the other’s needs. “David wants a serious relationship in his life,” explains producer Jennifer Todd. “He’s reaching into the adult world by reaching for Rafi, and he likes the challenge. Meanwhile, Rafi is looking for recovery. She’s been shut down from all the pain of a divorce, and this young person with a lot of energy and freshness is really appealing.”
“It’s Romeo and Juliet, except Juliet is 37 and Romeo is 23,” laughs Thurman. “The question is can Rafi and David love each other passionately and be on the same playing field? And how do differences in experience affect their abilities to relate to each other?”
About the Production
“He’s ten years different…he could be my brother.” – Rafi
“If he were one year younger…he could be your brother.” – Lisa
The script for Prime, which navigates comedy and drama with a sure hand, took Younger eight years to complete. While he had the idea for the story before he made Boiler Room, Younger felt he wasn’t ready to tackle the project of a May-December romance until now. “I couldn’t have written it then, not in its current iteration,” says the director. “It was more character-based than Boiler Room, so I was more nervous about writing it. It wasn’t until the last three years that it really came together.”
“Prime is about what happens when two people completely fall in love and then realize that being together is much harder than they thought,” notes Younger. “It’s also a coming-of-age story for a 50-year-old woman who can’t give her own son the professional advice she gives her patient.”
Producer Jennifer Todd sees Prime as an opportunity for Younger to show his range as a writer/director. “After Boiler Room, Ben was offered a lot of testosterone-driven projects. That movie felt like such a male-oriented film,” says Todd. “When he delivered Prime, he showed a whole new side to his character.”
She was moved by his insight into the female psyche. Particularly poignant is how the 32-year-old Younger so accurately depicts the emotions and concerns of a 37-year-old, recently divorced woman. “So many movies about women in this period of their lives portray them in such a desperate fashion,” shares Todd. “If you’re over 32 years old in a movie and you’re single, all you want is a baby or a rich husband. Ben’s done such a wonderful job of making this woman very complex and vulnerable, but not pathetic. I just thought it was lovely.”
“Prime is about the next series of questions that women face,” says Younger. “Do I want to be in love, or do I want to have a partner? Do I want to have children? Do I need to get married? Can I just find a father? These are questions that generations before us never had to answer. The options of motherhood are not as simple as they once were.”
So what’s an intelligent, gorgeous Manhattanite to do? Rafi begins to realize the options open to her as she moves into the next phase of her life. When she has a second chance at love, she bites. Thurman, a self-professed fan of romantic comedies, immediately reacted to the intelligence and depth of Younger’s characterizations. “I thought the script was incredibly funny,” says the actress. “It really moved me. There’s a lot of humor and a very dry bite to it. But it’s also very touching and human.”
She reflects, “Rafi is coming out the other side of a long, unsatisfying marriage. She’s worried about whether she’s going to meet someone in time to be able to have children, and she’s sad. She’s working through a lot of disappointment and pain and anxiety about being at this moment in her life.”
“This is the perfect time for Uma to play this role,” asserts Younger. “She’s bringing the life to Rafi I imagined when I wrote it. I wasn’t sure who was going to be able to do that, but she’s amazing to watch. I feel Rafi’s joy in meeting Dave. I feel her pain in therapy-her triumphs there as well.”
Streep echoes Younger’s feelings about Thurman’s work. Lisa and Rafi have multiple scenes in which they must bare their feelings to one another. Streep feels that Thurman did it with passion and talent. She notes, “What a surprise. I didn’t know how really wonderful an actress she is until I sat across from her and watched her work.”
In a scandalous, yet hilarious twist, David is revealed to be the son of Rafi’s longtime therapist. This coincidence creates conflicting interests and pushes each character radically off-balance. “When it comes to her own son, Lisa’s so upset that he’s dating somebody who is not Jewish,” says Younger. “But at the same time, she has to give Rafi completely objective advice about how to date and how to live. I really enjoyed that conflict.”
Lisa offers the most tangible source of the tension between David and Rafi. She symbolizes what they both worry about. “Lisa and her son David have a typical Jewish mother/son relationship,” explains Younger. “She’s overprotective and wants to keep him very close.” Notably, Lisa is adamant that David honor his religious heritage by marrying a Jewish woman.
According to Streep, “These are real concerns that he would be with someone who would make his life difficult…who would complicate what’s already complicated for him. As a parent, you hope to eliminate the threats to a child’s happiness. That’s why mothers are controlling.”
At its heart, Prime is a love story about all of the other forces besides love-age, experience, culture and religion-which have a hand in the fate of a relationship. “The movie asks, `Is love enough?'” says Younger. “These are two people who are completely in love. But they struggle because they can’t meet each other’s needs. It’s a bittersweet tale in that sense. It’s not just a romantic fantasy. It’s about what role love plays in a relationship, once you agree that it’s not everything.”
Both Rafi and David undergo significant emotional transformations over the course of the film. “David grows from a boy to a man,” says Greenberg. “He learns what he wants and gets the courage to do it. Rafi isn’t sure how to be a strong woman. And through their relationship, she grows into one.”
Prime (2005)
Directed by: Ben Younger
Starring: Meryl Streep, Jerry Adler, Uma Thurman, Bryan Greenberg, Annie Parisse, Adriana Biasi, Aubrey Dollar, Naomi Aborn, Doris Belack, David Anzuelo
Screenplay by: Ben Younger
Production Design by: Mark Ricker
Cinematography by: William Rexer
Film Editing by: Kristina Boden
Costume Design by: Melissa Toth
Set Decoration by: Carol Silverman
Art Direction by: Paul D. Kelly
Music by: Ryan Shore
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content including dialogue, and for language.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: October 28, 2005
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