The Intern Review, a truly superb film
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The Review:
What’s most impressive about The Intern is how much it does with its premise, and just as importantly what it doesn’t do with it. The notion of a seventy-year-old retired widower re-entering the workforce is one rife with potential for cheap jokes and easy generational shots. But, give or take a few trailer friendly moments, it never actually goes there. There are so many ways that the Nancy Meyers picture could have descended into farce, so many ways it could have descended into cheap theatrics or crowd pleasing hogwash. But time and time again it goes to the brink only to pull itself back with level-headed humanity and insightful empathy. It has a lot on its mind beyond its particular premise, yet at its core it works as a character piece about an unexpected relationship that helps both parties grow and better themselves accordingly. It’s the kind of well-oiled machine that would have been taken for granted twenty years ago but now feels like a revelation.
The Intern concerns Robert De Niro as 70-year old widower Ben Whittaker who signs up for an internship at an online clothes store run by an entrepreneurial Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway) struggling to juggle the various facets demanding her time. The film’s opening moments immediately earn our sympathy and respect, and it’s clear that the movie is after more than arbitrary punchlines. Yes, it plays a little with generation gaps a little, but everyone has a relaxed chemistry, and there is an overriding sense of can-do decency. As Ben adjusts to a different kind of workforce, and Jules deals with challenges to her leadership and the push-pull of family and work, they of course eventually form a working relationship that blossoms into a genuine friendship. But what sets the film apart is the lack of overt villainy and the presence of an authentic point-of-view about the subjects it raises.
Robert De Niro is pretty great here, and those who would argue that he is a shadow of his former self because he doesn’t kill people in Martin Scorsese movies anymore are doing themselves a disservice. The screenplay walks a fine line between making Ben’s experience and wisdom into a genuine asset and allowing him to overtly patronize his younger coworkers, and the script never tips over into the latter. Ben is too old to carry grudges or take would-be slights personally, and the film benefits from said attitude so it can get to the business at hand. He has exceptional chemistry not just with Hathaway but with his fellow coworkers (Christina Scherer, Adam Devine, etc.) and with Rene Russo in a romantic subplot that just barely works. It’s an unnecessary tangent, but their “first date” is surprisingly moving and I’m always happy to see Russo onscreen.
But truth be told, this is Anne Hathaway’s vehicle. It is as much about Ostin struggling to maintain a successful company while preserving healthy relationships elsewhere as it is about Ben becoming an employee again. I have to wonder if the hook with a 70-year old male intern was required for commercial considerations, but I digress. Meyers based her on real young female entrepreneurs who became CEOs, and as such the film champions her success rather than vilifying her or forcing her to make impossible choices. While her initial introduction is a bit quirky (she rides a bicycle through the office to save time) and we initially hear fearful rumblings from co-workers, the atmosphere in the workplace is one of mutual respect. Hathaway is usually pretty great, but this is the kind of strong movie star turn that would garner more attention if releases like The Intern were taken more seriously as a matter of course.
And, yes, in terms of how it deals with the double standards of women in the workplace and mothers having careers, it is unabashedly feminist and explicitly nonjudgmental in a way that shouldn’t still be surprising in 2015. I bring all of this up to emphasize that The Intern is a genuine adult comedy in that its characters behave like adults rather than stereotypical sitcom constructs. And the picture, which runs two hours, allows everyone their moment or two to shine and allows the core relationships time to grow, change, and be challenged. It touches on the judgment in which mothers hold other mothers, as well as the idea that businesses that cater to women are inherently less serious than those that cater to men. Yes, this workplace comedy centering on a female CEO should be taken every bit as seriously as would-be prestige dramas about great men or gritty crime dramas about scary men who harm those around them. Meyers doesn’t necessarily rub the institutional sexism in our face, but it’s under the surface as an additional issue to be dealt with.
I was constantly impressed by how often the picture presented a scenario that could have led to conventional conflict and strife, but instead was resolved through level-headed adult reactions and communication. And that includes a development that threatens to tip the third act into melodrama but instead allows it to fully engage its main characters in a fantastic dialogue sequence where opinions are aired, and wisdom is shared or challenged. It reminds us how infrequently movie characters just talk to each other and hash out ideas or opinions beyond mere plot-related exposition, and yet this picture is filled with moments just like that. There is no overt villainy in the picture, with the climax hingeing on choices the characters make rather than adversaries they must defeat. It is not edgy or gritty, and thus it may seem slight in the face of would-be Oscar contenders, but its quality should not be ignored due to its emphasis on workplace relationships or its lack of grim spectacle. That it is genuinely witty and consistently entertaining almost counts as a bonus, but said qualities should still be pointed out.
Nancy Meyers’s The Intern is a near-perfect studio programmer, the kind of mainstream multiplex fare that adult moviegoers and critics say we never get anymore. It is intelligent, empathetic, insightful, and charming to a fault, with great star turns from De Niro and Hathaway. There are moments here and there with which I might quibble (a frantic attempt to delete an embarrassing email is a needless distraction), and I don’t agree with every word every major character has to say (Hathaway has a drunken monologue that’s going to inspire a few think pieces), but on the whole it works as refreshingly adult entertainment in the best sense of the phrase. This is Nancy Meyers’s best film as a writer and a director, and I hope Hollywood allows her to make another one in fewer than six years this time. It is tempting to dismiss films of this nature or to quantify their success in lesser terms as a matter of course. But that would be a mistake. The Intern is a truly superb film.
