I didn’t expect much when I walked into the theatre on Sunday night. The trailer for The Intern looked smart but not particularly memorable or enduring, and I assumed the presence of Robert De Niro would mean the film would be something like Meet the Parents — slapstick, not much more.
I was wrong. The movie is genuine and deeply touching. With crisp, careful filming, the filmmaker captured the elegant grandeur of Brooklyn, the aesthetic appeal of a youthful start-up in hipster New York, and the honorable timelessness of a gentleman.
Ben Wittaker (Robert De Niro) is 70 years old, still adjusting to his life as a widower, and ready to take on a new challenge in retirement to keep himself busy. When he sees an ad for a “senior internship” program at a local e-commerce start-up, he decides to apply. To his own astonishment, he lands the job and gets assigned as an intern to the company’s founder: beautiful, busy, almost-losing-it Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). When Jules tells Ben she has nothing for him to do, Ben starts befriending other people in the office, helping whenever he can, and becomes an office hero for his selfless service, humor, and wisdom.
When he witnesses Jules’ driver taking a swig from a paper bag one afternoon, Ben steps in as Jules’ chauffeur. From there, the two strike up an unlikely friendship, and Jules learns there is more to Ben than the sharp suit he wears every day. He, meanwhile, learns that Jules has a husband and daughter, and that her life is delicately balanced on the edge of implosion due to the pressure of her new, booming company.
“Ben’s age, experience, and ethics are honored in The Intern, which is rare to see in our culture today,” says moviegoer Elliott. “It was refreshing.” The story is believable in this age of e-commerce and start-ups, and it asks hard questions (although it could be blamed for offering some handy, feel-good solutions right at the end). Overall, it is refreshing and heartening to be reminded that “experience never goes out of fashion.”
The Intern
Starring: Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, Adam DeVine
Run time: 2 hours 1 minute
Rated: PG-13
See upcoming showtimes for The Intern here.
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Becca Garber
Staff Writer
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