The Bottom Line: Uma Thurman ‘Prime’d and Ready

Laughter appears to be Uma Thurman’s remedy for mending a broken heart.

Divorced in 2004 after six years of marriage to Ethan Hawke, Quentin Tarantino’s favorite femme fatale obviously needs some cheering up. So she’s thrown herself into a slew of comedies, beginning with Be Cool and continuing with Prime (Oct. 28), The Producers (Dec. 16) and Superhero Ex-Girlfriend (July 14).

By design or accident, Thurman’s desire to giggle also could broaden her appeal after a decade of toiling in limp independents and big-budget bombs.

Prime director Ben Younger believes his romance will allow audiences to “rediscover” Thurman. He’s right when he tells “The Bottom Line” that Prime is “a real change from the Tarantino world [Thurman] was living in.” The Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill vixen reveals a warm and humorous side only hinted at in The Truth About Cats and Dogs.

Thurman’s radiant as a 37-year-old divorcée who falls for a 23-year-old aspiring painter (Bryan Greenberg). Only Thurman’s unknowingly dating the son of her no-nonsense therapist (Meryl Streep). Freud would love Prime.

It’s good to see Thurman letting down her hair while capitalizing on the Kill Bill saga. She all but disappeared from our consciousness–at least when it came to buying movie tickets–during her marriage to Hawke.

Was it a sign of things to come when Les Miserables and The Avengers bombed within the first three months of Gary Oldman’s ex exchanging vows with Hawke? It didn’t help that she then participated in several art house failures, including Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown and Merchant Ivory’s costume drama The Golden Bowl. Or that she and Hawke appeared in Tape, Richard Linklater’s monotonous character study, and Hawke’s dreadfully self-indulgence directorial debut, Chelsea Walls. No one wanted to see them in Gattaca, and that was before they tied the knot. So why bother a second or third time? Not that Thurman’s ever had much in the way of commercial instincts. She had the misfortune of fighting Batman & Robin. She looked dazzling in Emma Peel’s black leather jumpsuit in The Avengers , but she couldn’t make us forget Diana Rigg. Even wooing an established male costar–Richard Gere (Final Analysis), Robert De Niro (Mad Dog and Glory), Andy Garcia (Jennifer 8)–didn’t help.

No wonder the tall, gangly tough gal seemed more comfortable working with such maverick directors as Tarantino, Linklater, Gus Van Sant and Philip Kaufman. They knew how to put her brains, beauty, physical presence and overpowering sexuality to good use.
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So think of Kill Bill as a launching pad for Thurman’s latest attempt to go mainstream. She went from Tarantino to John Woo for Paycheck, starring a post-Gigli Ben Affleck, and reunited with her Pulp Fiction dance partner John Travolta for Be Cool . Both ranked as disappointments for their respective male leads, but Thurman walked away showing a willingness to lend her talents to more accessible fare than Tape and Chelsea Walls.

Not that Universal was sold on Thurman for Prime, and initially “rejected [her] as being not broad enough,” says director Ben Younger. He always thought Thurman was “perfect” for Prime, especially “because of where she was in her life.”

Universal instead cast Sandra Bullock. She bailed two weeks before cameras rolled reportedly over her dissatisfaction with the script (Younger says he doesn’t know why she exited). So Universal took a chance on Thurman.

Was Bullock right to leave Prime? Yes, it is a little flat, and it derives too much of its humor from trying to make Streep–somewhat hammy as a stereotypical Jewish mother–squirm in discomfort. But Thurman gives Prime an earthiness and honesty that would have been lacking had Bullock stayed the course.

Even with Universal opening Prime against The Legend of Zorro, Saw 2 and Nicolas Cage’s The Weatherman, it should break even thanks to its $19 million budget. 

The Producers stands a better chance of hitting all the right notes than Prime. Mel Brooks’ revamped satire reunites Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, the stars of the Broadway musical, and adds Thurman and Will Ferrell. Thurman slipped her size 11 feet into sexy secretary Ulla’s high heels when Nicole Kidman dropped out.

Super Ex-Girlfriend is one of several upcoming comic-book spoofs. But it should be fun to see Thurman–as a crime fighter who abuses her powers by tormenting former beau Luke Wilson–poke fun at her Amazonian image.

Thurman’s also attached to the long-gestating remake of The Women. Then again, so has every actress in Hollywood with the exception of Dakota Fanning. But it’s a testament to the power of Kill Bill that Thurman’s now part of a high-profile bitchfest once associated with Julia Roberts. And guess who could be one of Thurman’s cohorts? Yes, Sandra Bullock. Oh, the irony.