The Intern

There is a word for a movie like The Intern, and that one is charming.  You probably won't see a simpler or sweeter movie than this at your local multiplex anytime soon.  It also has some strong performances by reliable actors, and a lot of small laughs throughout.  It's the perfect movie to watch on the couch with a blanket over you and a fire in the fireplace.  In other words, the DVD sales of this one should be huge.

It's no surprise that the movie works on this comforting level when you learn the film's writer-director is Nancy Meyers (It's Complicated, Something's Gotta Give).  She specializes in these kind of comedies that are never classics, but are just so warm and inviting you kind of wish the real world was more like the way it's depicted in her films.  She has mastered the art of sweet escapism, and The Intern only goes to show she has not lost her touch.  The movie features Robert De Niro, who is in total sweet old teddy bear mode here, but he knows how to sell it without laying on the schmaltz..  It also co-stars Anne Hathaway, who is supposed to be a hardened corporate woman.  If she is, she's the kindest and sunniest hardened corporate woman to walk God's green Earth.  In just about any other movie, I would sneer at this manipulation.  But this is a Nancy Meyers movie, and not only do we expect it, she knows how to make it so we welcome it.

The plot is simple enough to be written in full on the back of a napkin, but that is not the appeal here.  The appeal are the characters Meyers gives us, and the way they talk to each other.  That has always been her strong suit, anyway.  De Niro is Ben Whittaker, a 70-year-old widower and retiree who finds that living alone at home does not suit him.  He's tried traveling and other group activities, but nothing has clicked for him.  That's when he happens to see a flyer that an on line business dealing in selling fashion is starting a senior intern program for people 65 years or older.  Ben takes a chance, and winds up landing one of the intern positions.  He is assigned to work directly under the company's founder and boss, Jules Ostin (Hathaway).

Jules has a patient husband (Anders Holm), a cute as a button daughter (JoJo Kushner), and the kind of Manhattan home you want to move into seconds after seeing the inside of it.  But she doesn't have any time to enjoy any of this, because she devotes all her time to running the company.  And now she is being pressured to find an experienced CEO who could take over for her.  She strikes up a friendship with Ben when he becomes her personal driver, after he catches her regular driver drinking on the job one day.  As the two talk and share their lives and experiences, Ben and Jules help each other become better people and open up more to life's experiences.  If this all sounds manipulative and somewhat cornball, you're definitely right.  But again, Meyers' screenplay and the performances of De Niro and Hathaway are so likable, you really find yourself surrendering to it.

That's because the things these characters talk about to each other is so well-written, and it's a joy just to hear these characters talk.  Luckily, The Intern offers plenty of opportunities for the characters to do just that.  This is the reason to watch this movie.  The performances are immensely likable, and the dialogue has just enough intelligence behind it that we know that there is at least some thought going on at the screenplay level.  The movie's not just trying to pump us full of good feelings, we actually become interested in these people, and like seeing them together.  De Niro and Hathaway bring a very sweet screen presence to their characters, and they're a big part as to why I fell under this movie's spell.  They're quiet, intelligent people who don't need to show off in order to be heard.  They're simple and laid back, and that is a big part of the movie's charm.

Not that everything about the movie works.  There is a sequence where De Niro and some of his fellow younger interns have to break into the home of Hathaway's mom for reasons that are too complicated to summarize.  The sequence is very silly, over the top, and honestly seems out of place with the rest of the movie.  I also felt a missed opportunity in a romantic subplot concerning Ben opening up to a masseuse named Fiona (Rene Russo).  Their scenes together hint at a sweet and likable relationship that seems ready to build at any minute, but it never quite does.  It almost feels like a lot of their scenes together were left on the editing room floor.  There's enough up on the screen so that we can sense a connection between the characters, but it still feels like there should be more than there is. 

Even with the occasional misstep, The Intern is the kind of movie you just surrender to and eventually fall in love with.  You may not believe a single second of it, but you won't care.  I certainly didn't.  As the movie played out, I knew I was being manipulated every step of the way, but I was sold on it, and by the end, I was happy.  The movie had done its job on me.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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