28 September 2005 - 19:30Prime - Just Like Heaven

“Prime” -
Meryl Streep, Uma Thurman, Bryan Greenberg

The premise is a good one. A 37 year old divorcee finds new romance with a struggling artist of a mere 23. The kicker is that he turns out to be her therapist’s son and the therapist doesn’t disclose this even when she figures it which makes her privy to some pretty steamy details about her boy. Streep is as always incomparable and the quintessential chameleon in this playing a classic Jewish modern mother. Thurman looks incredible and could pass for 27, but you can sense the gap in life wisdom, responsibility, and more. Greenberg is good, but not entirely memorable, I’ll be curious to see where he goes.

“Just Like Heaven” - Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo

I am a sucker for a Hollywood ending and this had it. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, lovely, if only life were really like this. A dedicated and ambitious young doctor is in an almost fatal car wreck. Comatose, her spirit, played by the insouciant and insistent Witherspoon, takes on a life of her own discovering all that she has been missing and realizing she wants another chance. Ruffalo plays the young widower who can’t get past his own sorrow, but is healthily distracted by the spirit only seemingly he can see, and his quest to help her. Gotta say he is HOT! The opposites attract is in full force here with Ruffalo playing to the hilt his mellow, laid back to Witherspoons wound tight and go-go-go. The only hitch was a true lack of understanding of Ruffalo’s character’s career and income. I have a good idea what the kind of place shown would cost in San Franscisco, but he didn’t seem to work at anything. And it was surprising to imagine a novice doctor in that financial position as well. A little filler information would have been a good idea.