I fell in love with Ben Whittaker, Robert DeNiro's
character, in the first five minutes of "The Intern." Ben is a
seventy-year-old retired telephone book executive. He's super competent,
humble, kind, caring, and hard-working. His eyes twinkle and his cheeks are
pinchable. He would make the perfect father, boss, or Santa. Ben Whittaker is
writer-director Nancy Meyers' best creation yet. I didn't just like Ben, I found
him believable, thanks to DeNiro's superb performance. I have to guess it's not
easy playing such a nice person in a believable way.
Ben is unsatisfied by retirement so he takes a position
as an intern at About-the-Fit, a fashion start-up, the brainchild of Jules
(Anne Hathaway). Jules is impersonal and demanding, again, in a very believable
way. Ben, worldly-wise and humble man that he is, makes positive changes in the
company. He is a kindly mentor to younger male employees who rarely shave and
don't tuck in their shirts. Ben explains to them why a man should always carry a
clean handkerchief.
Anne Hathaway is so beautiful it's hard for me to assess
her acting. I keep focusing on her face. I found her very believable as a
driven businesswoman lacking in people skills. The movie softens her. There are
scenes where she is revealed to have a toasty warm marshmallow heart. I was
disappointed by those scenes and didn't find them believable or interesting. I
wish the script had been as interesting and believable in its development of
Jules as it was with Ben.
There are two relationships in the movie that didn't work
for me at all. Jules is married to Matt (Anders Holm). I could see a really
beautiful, driven woman married to a charisma-free, vaguely creepy schlub like
Matt, so, yes, Holm was believable. I just didn't want Jules, this brilliant,
talented, interesting woman, to be married to Matt.
Ben dates Renee Russo, and that relationship didn't work
for me, either, although, again, it was believable. Ben has the wrinkled face
and thinning, gray hair of a man in his seventies. Russo looks like a Hollywood
actress fighting time, rather than like most real women her age. Also I saw no
onscreen chemistry between these two. Linda Lavin does look like a real, older woman,
and she is in the movie as a predatory, mean and obscene old lady. There are
cheap jokes at her expense. It's sad but not surprising that Nancy Meyers, a
woman herself, depicted an older woman as an old witch, and set her up for
coarse humor, and rewarded a much younger, and more Botoxed woman with romance.
"The Intern" is one of those rare, recent
movies for adults where nothing horrible happens. Nobody dies or behaves in a
deeply despicable way or loses his cool and screams obscenities or knocks the
movie off the rails. There are no body fluids on display. "The
Intern" really is a feel good movie. If you are ever having a lousy day
and you want to watch something that will give you a smile and make you feel
good about humanity, please consider "The Intern."
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