"Knight Thoughts" -- exclusive web content
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Less Than:
Prime
10-26-05 "Knight Thoughts" film review
by Richard Knight, Jr.
Prime
10-26-05 "Knight Thoughts" film review
by Richard Knight, Jr.
Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep do their best to make the clay speak
Prime is a chick flick written and directed by a guy (Ben Younger) so naturally in the first couple of scenes our young hunky
protagonist and his "hilarious" best friend are dicks to the chicks but we're supposed to laugh at their "outrageous" behavior.
Younger's "hero" is the 23-year old David Bloomberg (Bryan Greenberg) who is an artist wanna be that inadvertently insults the
"ancient" 37-year old heroine, Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman) on their first date. She's so dazzled by his youthful good looks, striking
upper torso and cockiness that she doesn't even notice the boorish behavior. And as the film progresses there's a lot more of it to
come.
Younger's gimmick is that the newly divorced "ancient" Thurman's relationship with the boy toy David is a big messy problem
because he's the son of her therapist, Lisa (Meryl Streep) and because he's Jewish and just starting out in a career and Rafi (only a
straight guy would come up with such a degrading name) is a Shiksa of Some Means. Streep, who is given a big pair of horn
rimmed glasses to signify intelligence figures all this out in a series of low (very low) comedy scenes that only an actor of her
expertise could pull off. Thurman, unaware that Lisa has a clue that the extremely intimate details she's revealing about her sex
life involve her therapist's son, gets more and more graphic and the laughs (for some) just keep coming. We're meant to believe
that Streep would not immediately reveal her awareness of the relationship to her patient and/or her son. But Younger saves the
reveal until he's reeled in the audience with the laughs. Then, instead of continuing in the direction of wacky romantic comedy land
that he's set a course for, Younger turns on the tear machine as the story heads into deep waters ala Something's Gotta Give. But
he's no Nancy Meyers.
Having been involved in a September-May romance at one point myself I found much of Younger's points valid -- one does tend to
overlook the youthful arrogance and inexperience because of the energy, beauty and excitement that can go along with it -- and the
eventual really bad down side (the slovenliness, the video games replacing the sex, etc.) rang true as well. I think the film would
have worked much better if he'd stayed in that area and forgotten the stereotypical comedy stuff (and the pie throwing gimmick of
the best friend was just plain stupid). Hollywood has fallen in love with "dramedies" (because audiences have) but this movie is a
good reminder that moving from comedy to drama is not for the inexperienced. Younger's reach has exceeded his grasp. It's only
by the grace of his experienced actors -- Thurman and Streep who do excellent work with underwritten roles -- that he manages to
make Prime even somewhat satisfying.
Oh, and Greenberg looks pretty good with his shirt off as well. That helps, too.
protagonist and his "hilarious" best friend are dicks to the chicks but we're supposed to laugh at their "outrageous" behavior.
Younger's "hero" is the 23-year old David Bloomberg (Bryan Greenberg) who is an artist wanna be that inadvertently insults the
"ancient" 37-year old heroine, Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman) on their first date. She's so dazzled by his youthful good looks, striking
upper torso and cockiness that she doesn't even notice the boorish behavior. And as the film progresses there's a lot more of it to
come.
Younger's gimmick is that the newly divorced "ancient" Thurman's relationship with the boy toy David is a big messy problem
because he's the son of her therapist, Lisa (Meryl Streep) and because he's Jewish and just starting out in a career and Rafi (only a
straight guy would come up with such a degrading name) is a Shiksa of Some Means. Streep, who is given a big pair of horn
rimmed glasses to signify intelligence figures all this out in a series of low (very low) comedy scenes that only an actor of her
expertise could pull off. Thurman, unaware that Lisa has a clue that the extremely intimate details she's revealing about her sex
life involve her therapist's son, gets more and more graphic and the laughs (for some) just keep coming. We're meant to believe
that Streep would not immediately reveal her awareness of the relationship to her patient and/or her son. But Younger saves the
reveal until he's reeled in the audience with the laughs. Then, instead of continuing in the direction of wacky romantic comedy land
that he's set a course for, Younger turns on the tear machine as the story heads into deep waters ala Something's Gotta Give. But
he's no Nancy Meyers.
Having been involved in a September-May romance at one point myself I found much of Younger's points valid -- one does tend to
overlook the youthful arrogance and inexperience because of the energy, beauty and excitement that can go along with it -- and the
eventual really bad down side (the slovenliness, the video games replacing the sex, etc.) rang true as well. I think the film would
have worked much better if he'd stayed in that area and forgotten the stereotypical comedy stuff (and the pie throwing gimmick of
the best friend was just plain stupid). Hollywood has fallen in love with "dramedies" (because audiences have) but this movie is a
good reminder that moving from comedy to drama is not for the inexperienced. Younger's reach has exceeded his grasp. It's only
by the grace of his experienced actors -- Thurman and Streep who do excellent work with underwritten roles -- that he manages to
make Prime even somewhat satisfying.
Oh, and Greenberg looks pretty good with his shirt off as well. That helps, too.