Movies require conflict, controversy. Generally, we call this, for lack of a better word: “plot.” So what happens when you make a feel good film that doesn’t really have the guts to have controversy? A film where random anxiety is substituted for genuine pathos? A film about an office which isn’t terribly different from yours and mine, only that the people are a bit prettier and they’ve been given almost fun things to say from time-to-time? A film like that couldn’t get past a studio, could it? Yeah, it kinda could.
I can sum up The Intern in a set of consecutive Act II scenes: the CEO of a runaway-success Brooklyn-based order-by-internet clothing store, Jules (Anne Hathaway), has inadvertently written a mean and 100%-out-of-character email about her mom and accidentally sent it to her mom. Luckily, mom doesn’t receive her e-mail until she returns from work hours later. The solution? The noob, 70-year-old intern Ben (Robert DeNiro), has taken upon himself to collect the cast of “Workaholics” and do a B&E at mom’s house. A series of deliberately forced hijinks later and the e-mail deleted (thank goodness mom doesn’t also receive e-mail through her phone like normal folks), the gang reconvenes for a celebration toast at a local bar where drunk Jules has the gumption to insult the guys who just did her a solid, comparing her ill-dressed flunkees unfavorably: “How in one generation have men gone from guys like Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford to …” (the camera finds her flunkees.)
The answer to her question is simple: because you’ve imagined a world in which Nicholson and Ford are paragons and all others kneel before them. Do you honestly believe the current generation is completely void of taste and cool just because IT guys in your office don’t like to dress in suits? Does GQ not exist any longer? One generation from Nicholson and Ford, huh? Brad Pitt? Clive Owen? Those guys don’t count? Or were you thinking of younger men? Ryan Gosling? Tom Hardy? Younger? Joseph Gordon-Levitt, perhaps? Ok, I draw the line at arguing for Robert Pattinson, but the truth is I could do this all day. And this is really the theme of the screenwriting – the generation above mine, with suits, pocket squares, handkerchiefs and standard courtesy — and not an ounce of prejudice, mind you– had it all going on, while the current generation is just a bunch of infantile computer geek slackers. Well, if you truly believe that, I think you’ll probably love The Intern.
The basic plot here is that widower and former phone book company V.P. Ben needs to unretire. Having nothing to do really doesn’t suit him, so he’s applied for the Senior Internship program at Jules’ company. Thankfully, Ben exhibits none of the drawbacks of growing old – he’s not forgetful or curmudgeony; he doesn’t have health issues; he doesn’t scare easy; he has no trouble adapting; he doesn’t need to impose his viewpoint on anybody; he’s simply a good guy who is 70.
So, the conflict is that he’s old? That’s it? Step back, Nancy Meyers. Just take a step back from your work. Did you really want every punchline to be, “it’s funny, ‘cuz he’s old?” Don’t you find that a tad condescending? I mean, it’s not like Robert DeNiro is dating Anne Hathaway. 
He’s just a new employee. If he were in his 20s, you’d say, “why are you making this movie? Is he completely wrong for the position, like Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in The Internship?” Your whole thesis that being old doesn’t make you incompetent is undermined by the fact that you felt you needed to make a movie to announce it.
And the movie is cute. It doesn’t have a great deal to say about the fidelity or hygiene of twenty- and thirtysomethings out there, but I expect the target audience to lap that up like a thirsty Labrador. While it all was too neat for me – I mean, let’s face it, if your company is over fifteen people large and your CEO is also your QC inspector, well, that’s an issue. A big one. And the failure to resolve that issue gives everything in this film a false ring. But, hey, DeNiro? Hathaway? Cute.
Robert DeNiro wakes up for work
Nobody there thinks he’s a jerk
Wearing a suit is his little quirk
It’s funny ‘cuz he’s old
His boss is thirty; she’s preoccupied
Attacking alone every issue supplied
“In my day, this is not how we did it,” he sighed
It’s funny ‘cuz he’s old
Coworkers a plenty, fixed and free-lance
All know he’s wise, just at a glance
Nary a one understands romance
It’s funny ‘cuz he’s old
Rated PG-13, 121 Minutes
D: Nancy Meyers
W: Nancy Meyers
Genre: The Green Interno
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Generation baiters
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: The new work force
