Skip to main content

Film Review: "The Intern"

Image via ComingSoon.net

One of the things that stood out to me immediately when I walked into the theater for this movie was the amount of senior citizens that were in attendance. That, to me, shows that the advertising for this film hit its primary target which is not surprising considering the premise of this movie. It was also cool seeing so many people lining up to see a Robert De Niro movie that is actually worth watching, because in recent years, those types of movies have been few and far between.

The Intern follows retired widower, Ben Whittaker, as he lands an internship with an up-and-coming online store after an endless search for a way to pass the time. As he begins at About the Fit, he is immediately faced with a world that he was once familiar with but that has since evolved drastically thanks to technological advances. Being the curious and observant man that he is, however, he begins to learn from his much younger colleagues and before long he is able to become an important asset to the company. The main focus of this movie, however, is on the relationship between Ben and his boss, Jules, and I will explore that further below.


** WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD**

At the beginning of The Intern, when Ben (Robert De Niro) is making his video to apply for the internship he references a quote from Louis Armstrong that says: "Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them." I think that quote was true for Ben just as much as it is for Robert De Niro because with this role, De Niro was able to show that there is still some music left in him. De Niro was both funny and charming, but what impressed me the most was the way in which he was able to show the internal struggles he felt throughout the movie. It was a lot of fun seeing De Niro, who represents the older part of society, interact with the younger generation and try to make himself fit into today's world while staying true to himself.

Anne Hathaway, who is representing the younger generation, plays the overworked entrepreneur Jules Ostin who starts off a bit unlikeable but quickly grows on you. What I enjoyed the most from her was actually seeing her relationship with De Niro develop because I thought the two had great chemistry together. You can easily understand why Jules would choose not to pay much attention to Ben so it's cool seeing him slowly win her over and proving that he actually is a valuable asset to her. As the story progresses, you can see that their relationship becomes pretty even in the sense of what each gains from having the other as they both learn vastly different yet important things from each other. By the end of the movie, Ben becomes a sort of confidant to Jules rather than simply his intern and you totally believe it.

The premise of this movie lends itself to be a pretty entertaining story that will evoke all kinds of different emotions from you. It's a quirky idea for a movie that somehow makes itself seem believable without much trouble. It's also a movie that is able to reach multiple generations of people as it shows both young and older people in a positive light, focusing on the favorable aspects of each. It subtlety speaks to multiple stereotypes that different generations face and explains why those stereotypes are unfair.

There are only a few issues that I had with The Intern. First off, I disliked the way in which they depicted Jules' relationship with her mother and I hated that it never got resolved. As a matter of fact, it seemed to be added onto the movie for the sole purpose of having the heist scene in the movie. While it was a funny scene, I don't think Jules speaks to her mother again after that scene and I wish that she would have at least showed some effort after that to have a better relationship with her. With one exception, the supporting cast was actually very good, but I wish they would have been used a bit more. The only character I didn't like at all was Jules's husband, Matt, who is played by Anders Holm. He came off as very monotone and bland, and maybe he was written to come off that way, but it just didn't work for me. 

Overall, this is a very entertaining movie to watch. It's not going to win any sort of award, but it's the best Robert De Niro movie in the past 3 years and that is good enough for me. This is an 8.5/10 for me.







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

7 Movies That Define Who I Am as a Film Fan

Movies have been a part of my life for as long as I remember. As I have gotten older, I have realized that I love cinema and I wish to be involved with it in any way possible. I see cinema as a way to escape reality and be in a world outside of our own. I love analyzing film and trying to figure what any particular shot in a movie meant or what it was supposed to show. Movies have a way of affecting certain people in certain ways and that's what this list is about. The following list is NOT what I consider to be the greatest films of all time. They are simply the films that have impacted my life significantly. This list might contain minor spoilers/plot points but I will do my best to keep that to a minimum. I hope you guys enjoy this list and I encourage you to watch any of the films on here that you may not have already seen before. This list is not in any particular order. 1.  Hercules  (1997) Disney's Hercules  is one of those movies that I wish people would ...

Classic Movie Monday: John Carpenter's "Halloween" vs Rob Zombie's "Halloween"

            We live in an era where remakes and sequels of beloved films are constantly coming out. Every once in a while, a classic or a highly popular film gets remade and it turns out so bad that people claim it “ruined the original”. One such case is Rob Zombie’s remake of John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic, Halloween. The purpose of this article is twofold. As always, I want to encourage readers to watch a classic film. With this article, however, I also want to try and dispel this notion that bad remakes/sequels ruin the original film.              John Carpenter’s original is widely considered to be a masterpiece and one of the founders of the slasher sub-genre. The story is a relatively simple one. It starts off in Haddonfield, Illinois in 1963 on Halloween night where a 6-year-old Michael Myers kills his older sister shortly after she has finished having ...

Film Review: "Black Panther"

After directing Fruitvale Station , Creed and now, Black Panther , Ryan Coogler has established himself as one of the very best directors of our era. In Black Panther , he created a breathtakingly beautiful world that was as vibrant as it was authentic. I am by no means an expert in African culture, however, it appears as though the filmmakers took great care to make this entire world look and feel as genuine as possible. This is a very stylish film, which is great, but what makes it even better is the fact that underneath all of that there is a huge amount of heart.               The film opens up with a very cool introduction of Wakanda that explains how they came to be. It’s a brief scene but an important one since it helps set up a very different world that the audience has not yet seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After this introduction, however, we are taken to Oakland where we meet a young King T’Chaka (Atand...