Review of The Intern (2010) by Kris G — 11 Sep 2016

The Intern is without a shadow of doubt a 2015 film. 20 years ago, The Intern would not of been made. Atleast, not like this. It handles a driven, young working woman with seemingly infinite hustle and a stay at home father with nary a hint of ridicule. The characters accept this as simply as you would wearing socks with shoes.

The elephant in the room is Ben, played supurbly by Robert De Niro with just the right mix of understated sensitivity and decades of life experience without the "I told you so" snark. Ben's the very senior intern to Anne Hathaway's Jules Ostin, a hustlin' 21st century sister doin' it for herself, her daughter & her stay at home husband. Ben never condescends, is always humble and willing to go above and beyond for the good of his motley crew of co-workers. This is taken to it's logical conclusion during a daring heist Ben heads up with his fellow desk jockeys to delete a disparaging email their not-so-fearless female leader accidently sent to her mother. Easily the film's most ridiculous moment, but it didn't outstay it's welcome and serves as an effective palate cleanser in the middle of the movie.

There's an interesting twist a little after the hiest which was definitely needed, because as good as The Intern is, it never layed down a firm mission statement for either of the leads to accomplish by the end, and the twist gave some welcome drama to what I found to be a very enjoyable, sweet and likable film.