Streep plays therapist Lisa Metzger and, as usual, her acting is indeed prime. Uma Thurman is gorgeous as newly divorced Rafi Gardet, whom Metzger is advising. Go for it, she tells Rafi when she embarrassingly tells therapist that she has met and fallen for a much younger guy. Rafi is so embarrassed that she lies and says he is 27 when he is really only 23, Rafi is 37. Greenberg as the Jewish David Bloomberg is truly appealing, and the sexual and personality attraction of the pair is made believable.

As anyone who has been exposed to the coming attractions knows by now, Metzger, a controlling Jewish mother as well as a therapist, discovers that the David with whom Rafi is in love is really her son. What to do? Her Jewish mother concerns about her son falling for an older woman—a gentile one, no less—conflicts with her opinions as a therapist, and on advice from her own psychiatrist, delays disclosure to keep treating her patient and struggles to adhere to the patient’s best interests. It is only so much time before matters hit the fan.

It is when the script tries to work out the results that the film slides downhill into reliance on assorted contrivances and Jewish mother and interfaith jokes. The romantic problem lingers. Can an older woman find happiness with a younger, not yet mature man who is a struggling would-be artist? Can he be happy with an older woman and meet her needs outside the bedroom? These days, there’s a pattern of such age differences that counterpoint the time-honored tradition of older men choosing younger women. On what side does the film come down?