PRIME — ** — Uma Thurman, Bryan Greenberg, Meryl Streep; rated PG-13 (vulgarity, profanity, sex, ethnic slurs, slapstick violence).

In "Prime," Uma Thurman has considerably more chemistry with Meryl Streep, who plays her shrink, than she does with Bryan Greenberg, who plays her boyfriend.

You can hardly blame her. Streep still has considerable film presence, and while Greenberg is amiable enough, he certainly doesn't have the charisma needed to play the leading man in this romantic comedy.

What's worse, the film sprinkles most of its laughs throughout the first 30 or 40 minutes, mostly during the therapy session scenes between Streep and Thurman's characters. After that, the movie hits a wall and never really recovers.

Thurman stars as Rafael — or "Rafi" — Gardet, a New York fashion photographer who is still recovering after going through a messy divorce. Rafi's therapist, Lisa Metzger (Streep), has been encouraging her to get back out into the dating scene. So she agrees to go out with David Bloomberg (Greenberg, of TV's "One Tree Hill"), a would-be artist.

Despite a huge age discrepancy — she's 37, he's 23 — they find a lot of common ground, including a love of art and conversation. But there's another, bigger stumbling block — David's staunchly Jewish mother who, as you may have guessed, turns out to be Lisa.

Screenwriter/director Ben Younger ("Boiler Room") tries to play the resulting misunderstandings and confusion for laughs, as if the revelation of David's mother will come as a huge surprise to the audience. But it's just not that funny, and is painfully obvious, as is much of the movie. And once that initial sequence is over, the film begins dying a slow death and feels very drawn out.

Thurman (who was a last-minute replacement for Sandra Bullock) is appealing in this comic role, but she has no spark with Greenberg. That leaves it up to Streep to carry the comic load, which she does for a while. Unfortunately, she pretty much disappears in the second half, and the film suffers as a result.

"Prime" is rated PG-13 for vulgar sexual talk and use of frank sexual slang terms, as well as some other sexual humor, scattered use of strong language (including one usage of the so-called "R-rated" curse word), simulated sex, use of a few ethnic slurs, and some slapstick violence (pie throwing). Running time: 105 minutes.

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