The Intern

Starring: Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, Rene Russo, Anders Holm, JoJo Kushner, Andrew Rannells, Adam DeVine, Zack Pearlman, Jason Orley, Christina Scherer, Nat Wolff, Mary Kay Place,
Directed by: Nancy Meyers
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A retiree (Robert De Niro) gets a job at an online fashion company as a Senior Citizen intern. He's assigned to the founder (Anne Hathaway), who doesn't see the value in his hiring.

Review:

Tim: I enjoyed The Intern more than I thought I would. The basic premise is intriguing, as it flips the script on what we've come to expect from films like this. Robert De Niro's character joins an online fashion retail firm as an Intern, and he reports to the CEO and founder of the company, Anne Hathaway. That's an interesting set up and offers a myriad of fun possibilities to explore. The central reason why this movie works is that it takes a worthwhile concept that is different and unique, and digs into it.

While the idea was a solid one, you had to have the right cast to pull it off. The film did very well in this area. Robert De Niro gets some criticism (some of it is warranted) for choosing poor roles in the twilight of his career. This shouldn't make us forget what an exceptional actor he is- his talent is on full display here. He gives a very strong performance and pulls the entire film up with him. De Niro's performance would never be Academy Award worthy, but instead of phoning it in, you can tell he tackled this role with everything he had. We can relate to his character and it's easy to identify with and root for him. Even when the script falls flat in certain place, De Niro works through it. I enjoyed his performance very much and I didn't fully expect to. Anne Hathaway is a great partner for him here. She's very different and embodies that Millennial generation, hard-charging, Type A personality very well. A great deal of the enjoyment derived from this film comes from the vast generational differences between De Niro and Hathaway. Those things showed up in the script, undoubtedly, but De Niro and Hathaway brought them to life. I can't say that I loved Hathaway's performance, but she is believable and I didn't have any real faults with her. Seeing De Niro and Hathaway together was a great deal of fun.

The supporting cast is good- I loved seeing Rene Russo here. Although her role was a little awkward at times, any movie is instantly better with her in it. The rest of the supporting cast was solid, with especially strong performances by Anders Holm and Adam DeVine.

The story itself is a bit predictable. This is a fault, but a minor one. The targeted audience for a film like this likely enjoys the safety and comfort of a somewhat predictable movie. As you might expect, the film sets the characters up where the CEO doesn't really see the value in her older intern. We know exactly where this is going and the film stays pretty close to the expected path. The journey might not be full of originality or suspense, but it's still enjoyable. The movie does have some legitimate laughs. Not all the jokes hit their target (a few too many miss the mark), but enough of them land that watching this is an enjoyable, fun experience. The movie works hard to make us care about the characters and feel for them. To some extent, this does work. While the emotional punch isn't as powerful as it could have been, we do learn to care for these characters and get invested in their story. That's a big reason why this movie works.

I really liked that this film tried to be about more than just the surface level events. Our characters go through their various situations, but the movie has interesting commentary on a variety of topics. These include retirement, internship programs, work-life balance, the emergence of online businesses and what that looks like, the pressures of juggling multiple priorities in life, and others. I appreciated that this film felt like it tried to be more than just another lightweight story.

I wouldn't say that I loved The Intern, but it's a cute movie that is a cut above the the typical comedy. Nancy Meyers' movies are usually either decent or good. This film is one of her better movies and one that I enjoyed.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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