Directed by: Nancy Meyers.
Written by: Nancy Meyers.
Starring: Robert De Niro (Ben), Anne Hathaway (Jules), Rene Russo (Fiona), Anders Holm (Matt), JoJo Kushner (Paige), Andrew Rannells (Cameron), Adam DeVine (Jason), Zack Pearlman (Davis), Jason Orley (Lewis), Christina Scherer (Becky).
Every
shot in every Nancy Meyers movie looks like it’s coming directly from one of
those high end design magazines – and that may be truer of The Intern than
anything else she has made. The movie is set in trendy, high-end Brooklyn, in
either some horribly expensive Brownstones or else a former factory turned into
an office space, for an internet startup company staffed mainly by hipsters. It’s
almost impossibly perfect looking, which unfortunately extends to the rest of
the movie as well, where Robert DeNiro plays not only the most well-adjusted
character of his long career – but perhaps the most well-adjusted movie
character in history. He plays a 70 year old widower, who spent decades working
for a phone book company, who is well off and retired, but bored. He sees a
flyer for an internet company called About the Fit, advertising for Senior
Interns, applies, and gets the job – assigned to work directly for the founder
of the company, Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). The site sells clothes online,
that somehow guarantees that everything will come and fit you precisely (how,
the movie wisely never explains, since that’s impossible). The company started
just 18 months ago, and is now a runaway success – so much so, that’s it’s
growing too fast for Jules to handle, and her investors want her to bring on a
more seasoned CEO. Jules doesn’t really want to, but at the same time, she
knows she is too busy – and her marriage to Matt (Anders Holm) – who quite his
good to be a stay at home dad, and her parenting to her 6-year-old daughter is
suffering. Jules thinks the whole idea of a senior intern program is silly, but
because DeNiro’s Ben is such a swell guy, she gradually lets her guard down,
and lets him into her life and her business.
Almost
everything about The Intern has the same, professional, high gloss sheen of
those Brownstones and that converted factory. It’s nice to see DeNiro play a
character this normal and decent – something he has never really had a chance
to do before. He’s an actor who has leant his image be used for far too many
dopey comedies and direct-to-DVD action movies or thrillers in recent years.
Here, he’s not mugging – but playing a well-adjusted, downright boring guy, who
is also perfectly pleasant – so while he’s not overly exciting to spend the
entire movie with him, it’s also not painful in the least either. While DeNiro
is, for the first time in a long time, not playing off his image, the same
cannot be said for Anne Hathaway. It would not surprise me in the least to find
out that Meyers wrote the part specifically for Hathaway – because it fits
image as a driven woman, who is perhaps trying too hard, perfectly. I’ll never
quite understand why some people – both men and women – hate Hathaway so much,
she’s always seemed perfectly fine to me – and she is here as well. It’s a kind
of stereotypical role of a driven career woman, trying to have it all, and
struggling with whether or not that is possible – but Hathaway handles it well.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about The Intern is how Meyers handles the
martial conflict with Jules and Matt –which does have a resolution, but far
from a tidy one – suggesting that things may not be perfect, but they’re going
to struggle on for a while longer anyway. That’s not something that Meyers has
really done before – and it was somewhat refreshing.
There
are other parts in The Intern at all though. Ben’s burgeoning relationship with
the office massage therapist, played by Rene Russo, doesn’t really go anywhere,
and has a few gags that are strangely uncomfortable. Ben’s relationships with
some of the office hipsters, teaching them his old school ways can be pleasant
at times, but reaches its nadir during a would-be comic outing to try and
retrieve a computer – a gag that takes up a surprising amount of screen time
considering it doesn’t really seem to come from anywhere, or go anywhere
either.
The
Intern is one of those movie that you know will find its way onto cable channels,
playing in repeat on Sunday afternoons, that you sometimes find yourself
watching because it’s too cold to leave the damn house. For that sort of
viewing, perhaps, The Intern will do its job – something to watch only half
paying attention, while folding laundry or doing something else. It’s a
perfectly pleasant movie. It’s just that the film doesn’t seem to go anywhere,
it’s just drifting. The time passes, and then it’s over, without really all
that much happening.
