Tags
Bryan Greenberg, Comedy, Meryl Streep, Movie, Prime, Romance, Uma Thurman
for the last time, I'm not introducing you to Quentin Tarantino...
PG-13
Uma Thurman, Bryan Greenberg, Meryl Streep
Rafi: By the way, things to avoid…
David: Okay…
Rafi: Beginning sentences with “my mom”…
David: Right, I’m all over it.
Rafi (Thurman) is a serious minded 37 year old, recently divorced woman who begins a romance with a 23 year old man, David (Greenberg). The age difference is the least of their problems though, as we soon discover that David is the son of Rafi’s therapist, Lisa, played by Meryl Streep.
This one started out a little slow for me, mainly because I was not enjoying the lead actor very much, and his bizarrely annoying best friend was not helping. The movie picked up in quality a lot, though, at the moment where Streep’s character realizes that Uma is dating her son. Uma doesn’t know that her therapist is her boyfriend’s mother, so she has no problem revealing the most intimate of details about their relationship. The whole middle section of the film was my favorite part, as the comedy and romance were both at their best.
Some of the conflicts at the end felt a little forced and contrived to me, particularly David’s sudden feelings of being suffocated or imprisoned in Rafi’s apartment. It kind of came out of nowhere and seemed out of character for him. The other issues, with them wanting different things in life at their respective ages, were more realistic and understandable. Though, some of the dialogue near the end – especially about David wanting to give Rafi the “gift” of a baby – was cheesy at best.
All in all, I thought it was a solid middle section of a movie, book-ended by a somewhat weak beginning and ending (though the final conclusion is exactly what it should be). Oh, and a final note to romantic comedy writers of the world: please lose the clichéd, obnoxious, loser best friend who tries to convince the lead actor that he needs to not get tied down to one “chick” and should instead be out playing the field. It devalues the leading man when we see him let himself get influenced by an idiot like the jerk best friend in this movie.
10 – 2 for that annoying friend – .5 for a slow beginning – .8 for some contrived conflict + .1 for that joke about Nintendo = 6.8
The Robot Who Likes Pretty Things 