Movie review: The Intern

Comedy
Rated – M – some coarse language/sexual references
Duration – 121mins
Release – August 2015
Director – Nancy Meyers
Cast – Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, Rene Russo

Mr Knight
 
This was a Mrs Knight selection and when I looked at this one, I thought it had all the ingredients to be a feel good comedy. And it did have them, but it was poorly done.
 
The Intern is the story of widowed and retired Ben Whittaker (De Niro) who since his wife's passing, has literally done everything one can do to stay busy, until he stumbles one day on a flyer for senior citizens looking to take on an internship.

Enter Jules Ostin (Hathaway), a startup business owner, who became an overnight success with her online shopping website and went from having a handful of employees at the beginning to 220 just eighteen months later, one of those being intern Ben.
 
Jules is a micromanager who forgets what she had done that morning, running around the office like a chook with her head cut off and feeling the struggles of a business woman with a poor relationship with her mother and a stay at home husband who she is losing her connection with.
 
The movie tangles with many issues in society people are faced with today like elderly employees in today's technological age, successful women in business, stay at home dads and other treats like it, but The Intern fails to deliver anything with any real depth!
 
The direction was poor with an overuse of cheesy music and bright lighting to give a fun feel to it. All the conversations with characters were rushed. For example, one scene Ben is at his desk, supposedly sick, and multiple characters approach him and immediately say "Gee Ben, you look sick!" despite them not seeing or speaking to him prior to that statement. It felt like director and writer Nancy Meyers didn't take the time to develop characters, conversations and the actual script. It was super painful.
 
De Niro carried the movie, despite his character being boring. I was hoping for a Morgan Freeman/Jack Nicholson type senior citizen from the heart warming movie The Bucket List. Instead however, Ben was an always cheery, never upset, never quite funny, never insulted, always happy to please, plain old, boring character.
 
Hathaway's Jules was also poorly written. First annoying thing. She rides a bicycle in the office despite it being difficult and slower than walking to be "quirky". Second thing. She was also nice, helpful and caring, HOWEVER all the characters including her own say she is difficult to work with. She was the furtherest from it! It is a small thing.. but it bothered me. Third thing. Every time characters went to bed every light was on in the room! They aren't three years old. Again, small thing, but it bothered me.
 
Every time this movie felt like it would give something, it fell short. The humour was weak, coupled with weak characters, making it very hard to feel any emotion for these people. Despite a strong cast this movie will be long forgotten and is better suited to daytime TV.
 
My advice.. go see something else.

 
Mrs Knight 
Hmm.. Where do I begin? So last night we went to see The Intern. Naturally this was my choice. While I knew this wasn't going to be an Oscar winning film, I did think it would be a feel good comedy. Unfortunately it missed the mark in so many ways and left me feeling disappointed. To the point where today I had already forgotten I'd seen it.. or blocked it out of my memory. Either way, it wasn't memorable!
 
The film tells the story of a 70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) who discovers that retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be. An opportunity arises for him to become a senior intern at an online fashion empire, founded and run by Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway).
 
Although I really wanted to love it, the film sadly missed the mark in so many ways. I found the characters and story line to be weak, with no real depth. The whole thing felt rushed and the relationships weren't given enough time to develop.
 
I wanted to like Robert De Niro's character so much and I didn't dislike him, but he lacked charisma. He was just a nice guy. Just because you're a chalkie (an oldie) it doesn't mean you can't have a personality. On the other hand, Hathaway's character, Jules Ostin had personality overload. To the point where what she was saying wasn't matching her actions. Everyone spoke of her as this hard ass woman who was terrible to work for, but she was beyond delightful to all staff and very helpful.
 
However, it wasn't all bad. To sum it up, it's a modern day comedy, which is very time appropriate and refreshing. There were some strong overall themes of feminism and the modern day family including a stay at home dad. It also showed the challenges of older people in the work force and the generational differences that come with it including technology, fashion and overall communication. I definitely didn't mind these elements. Any form of medium trying to change social themes and stereotypes is ok by me.
 
As I take my reviewer cap off, I did have the ability to enjoy the film for all that it was. I wanted to sit back, relax and tune out. I had a busy week at work and didn't want to use my brain. Mission accomplished. Also, it is worth mentioning that I did also enjoy the fashion.
While Mr Knight does tend to carry on, I can't deny that much of what he was saying, I agreed with. The film had a lot of potential but was filled with too many flaws. Plus, all the 'funny' bits were on the advertisements. There were a couple of smile moments, but no LOLs from us.

Go in expecting nothing, and I'm certain you will be entertained. Just don't expect much more.