Cinerant

Too Much of a Good Thing

There’s so much to like about Prime, but overall, it just doesn’t come together in a way that makes for a completely compelling movie.  A great setup—a May-December romance complicated by the fact that the parties are linked through a therapist/mother—doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a great movie.  This is the problem.

The largest problem is something that might not have seemed like a problem on paper—Meryl Streep.  She’s just too damn good.  When she is onscreen, everything around her lights up and moves with a brighter spring.  She brings great comic depth to a comedy that doesn’t have many funny moments.  She also helps root the film with a central conflict that feels authentic and interesting.  

Unfortunately, she’s so good at her job that when she’s not onscreen, the energy of the film seems to wane and dissipate, thereby leaving the audience to feel restless and irritable.  (At least that’s how many in the audience were reacting this evening when I saw it.)  It’s not a bad movie.  It’s just not the exciting morsel the title promises.

posted by cinegod @ 11:45 PM