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Review: In ‘The Intern,’ She’s the Boss, but He’s the Star

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By Manohla Dargis

• Sept. 24, 2015

The director Nancy Meyers doesn’t just make movies, she makes the kind of lifestyle fantasies you sink into like eiderdown. Her movies are frothy, playful, homogeneous, routinely maddening and generally pretty irresistible even when they’re not all that good. Her most notable visual signature is the immaculate, luxuriously appointed interiors she’s known to fuss over personally — they inevitably feature throw pillows that look as if they’ve been arranged with a measuring tape. These interiors are fetishized by moviegoers and Architectural Digest alike, ready-made for Pinterest and comment threads peppered with questions like, “Where do I get that hat?”

In her latest, Robert De Niro plays Ben Whittaker, a 70-year-old widower who shakes up his life when he becomes an intern at a web start-up where he soon becomes an office mascot and geezer Tinker Bell. Mostly, though, Ben is the benign face of patriarchy, a gentler, kinder father figure who comes equipped with a laundered handkerchief and the wisdom of the elders. He shares both with his new boss, Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway), the founder of an online clothing site that has rocketed from zero to zillions in record time. She runs her company with a steely grip and a forced smile in a refurbished Brooklyn warehouse the size of Grand Central Terminal. She’s a success and possibly an obsessive-compulsive (she all but showers in hand sanitizer), but she’s also floundering, one crisis at a time.

Movie Review: ‘The Intern’

The times critic manohla dargis reviews “the intern.”.

Jules’s problem is as familiar as the last headline that recycled the plagues of career women who want it all, apparently can’t have it all and are unsure if they want any of it in the first place. “What do women want,” Forbes asked a few years ago, echoing (still!) Dr. Freud. Among the suggestions: a little sadomasochistic me time à la “Fifty Shades of Grey.” For her part, Jules mostly wants someone to tidy up a cluttered table that sits like a reproach in the middle of the immaculate office and that for some reason she won’t or can’t tell someone to clean. Structurally, the messy table is a means for Ben, the ultimate can-do type whom Jules doesn’t want to engage, to at last catch her attention. And he does just that when he clears it, inaugurating a work relationship that soon turns into a friendship.

The table is a silly, lazy screenwriting contrivance, and it says more about Ms. Meyers’s conflicted ideas about powerful women than it conveys anything interesting about Jules. A successful Hollywood director like Ms. Meyers, for starters, would never have gotten this far and with a number of hits to her name if she had been afraid of telling other people what to do. But Ms. Meyers has some distinct ideas about women, work and power, and so she piles on the issues: Jules is chronically late to meetings, among other sins, although that seems to be because she likes riding slowly through the office on her bicycle. The bike suggests that she’s a nonconformist, although the neat rows of her pretty, young, overwhelmingly white employees doing something in front of their computers suggest otherwise.

Ben serves as a kind of Mr. Fix-It, who, with quiet confidence, paternal competence and a driver’s license, helps Jules get on track at work and home in the way that none of the man-children in her life can. Ms. Meyers has clearly been binging on Judd Apatow comedies, and she stacks her movie with assorted bromantic schlumps (including a troika that functions like a farm team version of Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Michael Cera), whose sloppy clothes and facial hair emblematize not only their arrested development but also a crisis in masculinity. That guys like these help run the world (and the entertainment business) without hauling around a leather briefcase is immaterial to Ms. Meyers, presumably because it would get in the way of her new take on the rescue narrative.

Ben doesn’t sweep up the damsel like Daniel Day-Lewis in “The Last of the Mohicans,” but he proves more than up to the task. Ms. Meyers’s script makes sure that’s the case, as does the smartest choice she makes in “The Intern”: Mr. De Niro, her loosest, most valuable player. Long celebrated for his vein-popping intensity, Mr. De Niro has been yukking it up in comedy since the 1960s. Part of what distinguishes his later laugh-ins is that they’re inextricably haunted by the ghost of Travis Bickle and sometimes — as when Mr. De Niro breaks out his terrifying ear-to-ear Soupy Sales grin — Rupert Pupkin, his nut job from “The King of Comedy.” However straight his character, he can’t help but be a destabilizing force, which is crucial when a movie is as hermetically sealed as “The Intern.”

Ms. Hathaway, who’s regularly forced to take Jules’s inner girl out for a sniffle and a sob, does her best, but it’s hopeless. Jules is less of a character and more of a fast-walking, speed-talking collection of gender grievances, some of which originate with a squirmy house husband Matt (Anders Holm). One look at that guy’s smile and you want Mr. De Niro to wipe it off. He doesn’t, but there’s no need to because Mr. De Niro owns the movie from the moment he opens his mouth, and is staring into the camera and right at you. ( Oh, yes, he’s lookin’ at you. ) You can’t look away, and soon you don’t want to. Certainly Ms. Meyers doesn’t want anyone to because, though she loves the idea of the successful, independent woman, she also ardently wants to make room for daddy.

“The Intern” is rated PG-13. (Parents strongly cautioned.) Tumescence and the usual tee-hee-hee gaggery.

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‘the intern’: film review.

Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro star in a workplace comedy directed by mainstream female auteur Nancy Meyers.

By Stephen Farber

Stephen Farber

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Writer-director Nancy Meyers has scored a number of commercial successes (including It’s Complicated and Something’s Gotta Give ) by going against the grain and making movies centered on women and aimed at older audiences. These films have not always fared as well with critics as they have with audiences, and you can expect the same divided response to her latest feel-good comedy, The Intern . Box office should be healthy, even though the movie offers more frustrations than rewards to discerning viewers of any age or gender.

On the plus side, the movie benefits from the casting of Robert De Niro and especially Anne Hathaway . And the premise has possibilities. Hathaway plays Jules Ostin , a high-powered executive at a new fashion website, and De Niro is Ben, a senior intern hired to work for her after he rejects the idea of retirement. Fortunately, there is no hint of romance between the two characters; it’s more of a friendship and professional relationship, which turns out to benefit both of them.

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So far, so good, and the supporting cast is also appealing, even if some of their roles are very thinly written. But there’s a vacuum at the center of the film that becomes increasingly problematic: Jules is, at first, reluctant to take on Ben as her intern, but she quickly realizes his value, so there isn’t a lot of conflict to enliven this central relationship.

This film bears a resemblance to Baby Boom , a 1987 film co-written by Meyers and her former partner, Charles Shyer . In that picture,  Diane Keaton was a high-flying executive who’s forced to re-examine her priorities when she inherits a baby. But the movie was a lot funnier and sharper. One of its strengths was that Keaton played a more flawed character than the talented and vibrant Jules. In addition, Keaton’s character had antagonists in a suspicious boss ( Sam Wanamaker ) and a sneaky co-worker ( James Spader —   who else?). In The Intern , Hathaway’s Jules doesn’t really have anyone trying to challenge or undermine her, and that means drama often is shortchanged.

This film proves how political correctness can damage a movie.  Baby Boom made the point that a demanding career can hurt the personal lives of women, as well as men. But in The Intern , Jules has a stay-at-home husband and an adorable daughter in addition to a stimulating career. It’s all a little too perfect. There is one surprise twist in the third act that suggests her life may not be as ideal as she thinks. But even this stumbling block is resolved much too quickly and neatly. The whole movie is way too tepid to scintillate.

Even the humor is a bit antiseptic. The funniest scene — in which Ben and three of the other staff members break into the home of Jules’ mother to delete a message that Jules sent by mistake — is basically an aside that has little to do with the film’s central storyline.

Given the vacuity of the script, it must be admitted that Hathaway achieves something of a triumph. She’s always engaging and keeps the character on a human rather than superhuman scale. De Niro has demonstrated his flair for comedy in such films as Meet the Parents , Analyze This  and The King of Comedy , but this role is too constricted to allow him to break free. He’s been given a romantic interest in Rene Russo (wonderful, as always), who’s a more age-appropriate mate than Hathaway. She is still a decade younger than De Niro , however, and undeniably glamorous. It’s interesting that the film rejects the idea that Ben might have a romance with a woman his own age. When such a character appears in the person of Linda Lavin , she comes across as some kind of gorgon and sends him fleeing in horror.

All of Meyers’ movies are technically polished. In this case, the sets are cleverly designed by Kristi Zea , while the music by Theodore Shapiro is gratingly schmaltzy. In the end, an overdose of blandness sinks this middling star vehicle.

Production company: Waverly Films Cast: Robert De Niro , Anne Hathaway, Rene Russo, Adam DeVine, Anders Holm, Andrew Rannells, Linda Lavin Director-screenwriter: Nancy Meyers Producers: Nancy Meyers, Suzanne McNeill Farwell Executive producer: Celia D. Costas Director of photography: Stephen Goldblatt Production designer: Kristi Zea Costume designer: Jacqueline Oknaian Editor: Robert Leighton Music: Theodore Shapiro

PG-13, 121 minutes

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Movie Review: The Intern (2015)

• Vincent Gaine
• Movie Reviews
• 2 responses
• --> October 6, 2015

Nancy Meyers’ The Intern is both about an intern and an intern in itself. Mainstream comedies often feature a young, driven individual whose commitment to his/her career affects his/her romantic or family relationships, but the sage advice of a smart minor character helps the protagonist see things more clearly and re-establish their priorities. That sub-plot serves as an intern under the management of the main narrative in such films as “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Jerry Maguire,” “ Friends With Benefits ” and Meyers’ own “ The Holiday ,” but The Intern turns this sub-plot into the primary narrative and finds more than enough material to deliver a genuinely warm and engaging film.

The added twist, of course, is that the smart adviser in this case is a retired seventy year-old widower who spent forty years in the phone book industry, but answers an ad for a senior citizen internship at an Internet shopping company. Already, this is far more detail than is normally given to the stereotype of the smart supporting character, as Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro, “ Silver Linings Playbook ”) begins the film with a voiceover about what he has done and how he now tries to fill his time. This narration forms a video application for About The Fit, run by super confident and successful go-getter Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway, “ Interstellar ”). Upon his arrival, Ben quickly makes himself useful despite his ignorance of the digital age. In pretty much the only similarity between this fine, funny and adorable comedy to the dismal “ Terminator Genisys ,” Ben proves that being old does not make him obsolete.

What Ben’s age does allow for is plenty of fish out of water comedy, especially as the young employees of About The Fit frequently turn to Ben for his experienced view, whether it be about getting yourself noticed at work, how to talk to the opposite sex or what the best apartment to rent might be. But while ATF staff Jason (Adam DeVine, “Pitch Perfect 2”), Becky (Christina Scherer), Davis (Zack Pearlman, “ The Virginity Hit ”) and Lewis (Jason Orley) seek Ben’s advice in these matters, Jules remains largely separate, confident and controlled in her role, and initially hesitant about Ben. But as the film progresses, she gradually warms to and learns from him as well.

Feminist hackles may rise at this apparent intrusion of patriarchy into what is ostensibly a progressive image of contemporary womanhood. However, Jules is far from a stereotypical career woman, as rather than being a brash, ballbusting bitch, Meyers along with the constantly watchable Hathaway create a rounded, plausible and likable character, driven but sympathetic, and while she may be devoted to her company, Jules is also a loving if somewhat harried mother and wife. Crucially, Jules’ commitment to her work is not framed as a failure of her as a mother, as it could so easily have been. Instead, The Intern dares to suggest that a woman can have it all, and that while there is a price, that price is not some crucial part of her identity but the stress and exhaustion familiar to many in today’s super fast professional spheres. The film achieves its portrayal of womanhood by making Jules’ development the main arc of the narrative, while Ben largely stays static. Along the way he learns about Facebook and develops a romance with masseuse Fiona (Rene Russo, “ Nightcrawler ”), but these are sub-plots rather than the central narrative. The film could so easily have focused on aged romance and sexuality, but by keeping the central relationship one of friendship between Ben and Jules, The Intern is startlingly refreshing.

Not that it is without flaws. While Jules is well rounded, other female characters in the film are more problematic. Fiona is charming and it is pleasing to see a woman of Russo’s age getting roles, but she is largely a cipher and her presence in the film relates entirely to Ben still having some form of sexuality. Worse are two minor characters — women of Ben’s age that are solely comedic caricatures. One is a horny old crone that Ben wants to avoid; the other a dotty old dear who seems perpetually confused. While the appearances of these characters are brief, they are still as irritating as everyone else is pleasantly distinct and non-extreme. In addition there is a comedy heist set piece that may highlight once again that Ben is cool under pressure while his young colleagues panic, but is unnecessarily silly and strays too far into farcical territory.

Such niggles are largely forgotten, however, in the film’s central highlight. Meyers has delivered many winning, warm and witty romantic comedies over the years, including “The Holiday,” “It’s Complicated” and “Something’s Gotta Give.” One of her key talents is affecting dialogue scenes, and The Intern features several of these between various characters. The highlight of the film is one such sequence: An extraordinary long discussion scene between Ben and Jules that highlights their similarities and differences, and crucially the resonances between them. Gender relations are smartly interwoven with personal issues and, while Ben is wise, the scene does not suggest that Jules simply accept what he advises. Indeed, he often acts more as a sounding board for what Jules needs to get off her chest, once again the film taking the viewer through Jules’ development, often placing us in Ben’s position. While Ben and Jules are very different people, they form a remarkable connection that is neither creepy nor cloying, but genuine, affecting and affectionate. Indeed, their relationship is rather like the film as a whole: Warm, pleasing and ultimately adorable.

Tagged: intern , internet , relationship , retirement , widower

Dr. Vincent M. Gaine is a film and television researcher. His first book, Existentialism and Social Engagement in the Films of Michael Mann was published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2011. His work on film and media has been published in Cinema Journal and The Journal of Technology , Theology and Religion , as well as edited collections including The 21st Century Superhero and The Directory of World Cinema .

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'Movie Review: The Intern (2015)' have 2 comments

October 6, 2015 @ 8:29 pm Crapduster

I may have to reconsider … I thought this was a cringeworthy romantic comedy.

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October 6, 2015 @ 10:11 pm crisisis

Anne Hathaway

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Review: ‘The Intern’ is a Nancy Meyers comedy, for better or worse

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With her cashmere-soft touch, eye for design, ear for dialogue and heartfelt explorations of the ever-shifting dynamics between men and women, writer-director-producer Nancy Meyers makes movies that are both commercial and idiosyncratically personal. Her new film, “The Intern,” is every inch a Nancy Meyers film, for better and for worse.

As one of the most successful female filmmakers in Hollywood, Meyers makes movies as aggressively and unmistakably hers as more obvious counterparts such as Michael Mann.

Meyers straddles a line between the fizzy fantasies of classical Hollywood and the emotional realities of modern life. This becomes the motivating tension in her movies, as their stories exist between the lives her characters envision and the ones they actually live. Hence the aspirational kitchens.

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In “The Intern” Anne Hathaway is Jules Ostin, founder of an online clothing retailer that has become successful quickly, something of a mix of Nasty Gal and Net-A-Porter. She rides a bicycle around the sprawling industrial-chic, open-plan office in Brooklyn’s Red Hook and amid its growing workforce, desperately trying to stay on top of things.

Enter Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro), a 70-year-old retired widower who joins the company’s new “senior intern program” largely to have someplace to go and something to do. Though Jules is at first reluctant to engage with him, soon enough he becomes an indispensable aide-de-camp, confidant and friend. Jules faces new challenges both at home with her husband Matt (Anders Holm) and at the office, because her investors are pressuring her to bring in an experienced CEO.

Meyers’ earlier films “Something’s Gotta Give” with Diane Keaton and “It’s Complicated” with Meryl Streep found Meyers dealing with issues of female characters more or less her own age and dealing with issues of aging and post-kids, post-divorce life. Her new film pulses with a more purposefully current sort of energy. For example, the music in a quick scene-setting montage in “It’s Complicated” featured a boomer chestnut by Crosby, Stills and Nash, while a similar moment in “The Intern” uses a recent hit by Kendrick Lamar.

The smartest idea in the movie is that that the relationship between Jules and Ben never goes anywhere near being romantic. The second-smartest idea is that De Niro’s character used to work for a company that printed phone books, the very notion of which bewilders his young colleagues at a tech-era start-up, giving the film the feeling of one generation checking in with another. Unfortunately, Meyers adds one more layer to that idea, which pushes it too far into movie-land coincidence and cliché.

The film isn’t concerned with the real spatial geography of Brooklyn or the distinctive characteristics of its many neighborhoods. Hathaway’s character lives in a cloistered world where a car service car whisks her to and from a multi-story brownstone every day. How De Niro’s character gets to and from the office, whether by walking, bus or subway, is never shown.

The 1987 film “Baby Boom,” co-written by Meyers with then-husband Charles Shyer, was explicitly concerned with the notion of “having it all,” whether a woman could have a family and a career. In “The Intern” the focus is on the contemporary iteration of life-work balance — whether the relentless, competitive demands of the digital-age work environment can leave room for anything else.

De Niro brings a fresh, relaxed lightness to his performance, tinged with the gruff charm of Spencer Tracy. Many of the best moments in the film involve placing Ben in relief to the younger male employees who become his de facto charges, as they learn the wonders of a briefcase, the power of tucking in a shirt or the importance of taking responsibility for their sloppy cluelessness.

Meyers cheats a bit in making Ben already evolved as a self-described feminist in his thinking regarding women in power in the workplace and as breadwinners at home. Jules bemoans the way in which men now dress and act like boys — and Meyers seems to be pointing a finger at post-Apatow depictions of men in the movies — by holding up Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford as pinnacles of manliness but without full reflection as to the conflict those same ideals can create. (Ford, for example, is on his third marriage, to a woman more than 20 his junior.)

At one point De Niro gets emotional watching Gene Kelly sing “You Were Meant for Me” to Debbie Reynolds in “Singin’ in the Rain,” a nod to both the classical Hollywood that Meyers looks to update and more straightforward notions of romance.

As Ben becomes increasingly involved in supporting Jules in her decisions, the film inadvertently pushes against a line where paternal becomes patronizing. In examining Jules’ difficulties in being an ever-chipper, unstoppable overachiever — including a late-night crying jag with puffy eyes and splotchy skin — the movie seems to be addressing “the Hathahaters,” those who turned against Hathaway for somehow being too together all the time.

A comedic midmovie sequence involving a mini-heist by Ben and his boys feels like it belongs in some other movie and causes the film to temporarily lose focus. Overall the film feels scattered, an assortment of scenes and ideas that mostly represent a notebook full of thoughts from Nancy Meyers.

Thankfully, that still makes for a better, funnier and more considered movie than much of what passes for nonfranchise studio filmmaking, even as it shows a world almost exclusively white, straight and upmarket. With “The Intern,” Meyers has made another bright, contemporary American comedy with a lot on its mind — and works hard to make it look effortless.

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Twitter: @IndieFocus

------------

‘The Intern’

Running time: 2 hours, 1 minute

Rating: PG-13 for some suggestive content and brief strong language

Playing: In wide release

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Film Review: ‘The Intern’

Nancy Meyers' smug workplace fable needs every ounce of Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro's combined star quality.

By Guy Lodge

Film Critic

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Behind at least one successful woman stands an older, wiser man. That, at least, is the chief takeaway from “ The Intern ,” a perky generation-gap fable that sneaks some surprisingly conservative gender politics into its stainless new world of online startups and amply product-placed Macbooks. Starring Robert De Niro as the tirelessly benevolent retiree who becomes fashion entrepreneur Anne Hathaway ‘s unlikely guide to work-life equilibrium, this is smooth white-linen entertainment, unmistakably of a piece with the plush oeuvre of writer-director Nancy Meyers . Yet it takes all the leads’ considerable combined charm to forestall the aftertaste of the pic’s smug life lessons and near-comically blinkered worldview. Supplanting the romantic fizz of “It’s Complicated” and “Something’s Gotta Give” with scarf-deep social engagement may cost Meyers’ latest a little at the box office, but this “Intern” will still be reasonably well-paid by an under-served date-night crowd.

“Love and work, work and love, that’s all there is,” intones 70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker (De Niro) in the film’s opening voiceover — vaguely quoting Freud, but pinpointing the extended concerns of Meyers’ screenplay with ruthless accuracy. (An hour later, one character will suggest changing the subject in a work-focused conversation. “Marriage?” another eagerly suggests. These are the options.) Marital stability and professional achievement are the two objectives by which “The Intern” defines its characters and narrative alike, at the expense of any deeper personal or cultural interests; when Ben tells a date that he can summarize himself in 10 seconds, the script gives us little reason to doubt him.

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For Hathaway’s heavily burdened career woman Jules Ostin, on the other hand, even 10 seconds of self-description is time she can ill afford to spare. The founder and president of About the Fit, a Brooklyn-based online couture retailer in the mold of Net-a-Porter, she’s a Type A micromanager who has trouble leaving even customer service calls in the hands of her eminently capable employees. When her patient deputy (Andrew Rannells) announces that she’s to be assigned an assistant via the company’s newly-introduced senior intern program, she takes it as a personal affront.

Enter Ben, whose affability and helpfulness are as consistent as the square charcoal business suits he wears every day. After trying out a host of hobbies and adult education courses to stave off the loneliness of spouseless retirement, the former telephone-directory manufacturer (a pointedly analog career path) has come back around to the workplace: Tai chi classes are all very well, but can’t verily be classified as either work or love. Hoping for a new lease on life from the fiercely young, hip surrounds of About the Fit, he arrives with rolled-up sleeves and a can-do attitude — only to be brusquely ignored by Jules, more frazzled than ever following pressure from investors to hire a senior male CEO for the company.

By this point, it can’t have escaped viewers’ attention that Meyers has fashioned “The Intern” as something of a generational backflip on “The Devil Wears Prada,” with the cannily cast Hathaway having graduated to the role of corporate fashion dragon. (She’s even permitted, in a witty touch, to toss her jacket at Ben in the blasé manner of Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestley.) The difference, of course, is that Jules hasn’t quite Priestley’s time-hardened unflappability, while De Niro is no hapless naif a la Andie Sachs: The balance of authority between them is awkward from the get-go, as Jules complains that her well-seasoned intern is “too observant.”

The turning point, as in “Prada,” is when home-work boundaries are crossed. Ben steps in for Jules’ personal chauffeur (her on-trend preference for cycling, cited in introductory scenes, is inexplicably forgotten), getting to know her young daughter Paige (JoJo Kushner) and affable stay-at-home husband Matt (deftly played by Anders Holm) in the process. Yet as Jules’ marriage, rather than any workplace dilemmas, becomes the focus of the drama, “The Intern’s” superficially 21st-century outlook on age and gender takes on a more regressively paternalistic slant. Jules asserts that she can have it all, but she requires an awful lot of mentoring from Ben — whose professional and marital history is, at least as he tells it, wholly unblemished — to get to that point. There’s not a lot of inter-generational exchange here, as Ben arrives in the narrative with little to learn; beyond helping him set up a Facebook page, Jules doesn’t get to impart much perspective of her own.

Before long, Ben’s even monitoring her drinking with raised eyebrows: She may come to call him her “best friend” (largely because there’s scant evidence of any others), but the subtext is that it’s hard for a woman in her position to find support among her own. Certainly, the film’s other female characters do little for its feminist credentials: Jules’ fellow kindergarten moms are characterized as spiteful housewives, while her mother (heard, never seen) is a passive-aggressive needler. The great Celia Weston is egregiously wasted as a dippy elder intern, while as the frisky office masseuse — this is a Nancy Meyers film, after all — who embarks on a staid courtship with Ben, fellow “oldie-but-goodie” Rene Russo has little to do but twinkle kindly from the sidelines. (She’s over a decade younger than De Niro, but “oldie” status comes early in this world.)

If older women get short shrift, then, their male counterparts are praised to the skies. Hathaway even gets to deliver a wince-worthy sermon to Jules’ cardigan-wearing twentysomething male employees — themselves equally in thrall to Ben — bemoaning the decline of masculinity and decorum in modern men. Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford (not to mention, by implication, De Niro himself), by contrast, are held up as superior role models of “cool.” This is pretty retrograde stuff, and hardly plausible coming from Jules given her own husband’s enlightened decision to give up his career for hers — not exactly a maneuver from the Jack Nicholson playbook.

At least there’s a genuine crackle of chemistry between Hathaway and De Niro to sell us on their characters’ mutual appreciation: Both actors can perform this kind of personality-led comedy on cue, but also tease out unscripted hints of inner conflict when so inclined. Hathaway does particularly well in a role that frequently draws direct attention to its own unlikeability: Both the steelier and more genial sides of the actress’s signature class-captain charisma play persuasively into her business persona.

Meyers’ detractors often cite her films’ narrow focus on a moneyed sliver of society, and true to form, the story world in “The Intern” could hardly be more homogeneous: For a film set predominantly in Brooklyn, the racial uniformity of the ensemble is regrettably striking. (Ben admits early on that he took Mandarin classes for a stretch; in Meyers’ vision of the Big Apple, it’s hard to imagine what use he might have for them.) Though the pic is brightly shot by Stephen Goldblatt and scored with chipper deodorant-ad zeal by Theodore Shapiro, it’s Kristi Zea’s impeccable production design that again proves the most defining technical element of Meyers’ filmmaking. From the sharp white corners of About the Fit’s warehouse-conversion offices to the ivory calico textures of Jules’ gorgeously refurbished brownstone, all “The Intern’s” interiors radiate a most exclusive kind of expense.

Reviewed at Warner Bros. screening room, London, Sept. 15, 2015. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 121 MIN.

• Production: A Warner Bros. Pictures presentation of a Waverly Films production. Produced by Nancy Meyers, Suzanne Farwell. Executive producer, Celia Costas. Co-producers, Jeffrey J.P. Wetzel, Deb Dyer.
• Crew: Directed, written by Nancy Meyers. Camera (color, Arri Alexa HD), Stephen Goldblatt; editor, Robert Leighton; music, Theodore Shapiro; music supervisors, Randall Poster, George Drakoulias; production designer, Kristi Zea; art director, Doug Huszti; set decorator, Susan Bode-Tyson; costume designers, Jacqueline Oknaian, Aude Bronson-Howard; sound (Dolby Digital), Danny Michael; supervising sound editors, Dennis Drummond, Sean Massey; re-recording mixers, Greg Orloff, Tateum Kohut; visual effects supervisors, Bruce Jones, Mark Russell, Hameed Shaukat; visual effects, Shade VFX, Rodeo VFX; stunt coordinator, Victor Paguia; associate producers, Stefan Metz, Christin Mizelle; assistant director, Jeffrey J.P. Wetzel; second unit directors, Alex Hillkurtz, Bruce Jones, G.A. Aguilar; casting, Laray Mayfield.
• With: Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, Anders Holm, Rene Russo, Zack Pearlman, Adam DeVine, Andrew Rannells, Christina Scherer, JoJo Kushner, Celia Weston, Nat Wolff, Linda Lavin, C.J. Wilson.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Comedy about work, marriage is winning despite clichés.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Friendship knows no age or hierarchy. Believe in y

Jules is kind, caring, driven, smart, and hardwork

Some innuendo, prompted by a masseuse during a mas

Some swearing, including "s--t," "a

Many products/labels seen/mentioned, including Del

Some social drinking. In one scene, a character do

Parents need to know that despite being a bit formulaic, The Intern -- which stars Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway -- is a deeply felt, heartwarming movie about friendship, careers, and marriage. Although those are fairly serious themes, the movie takes a light touch with them, and teens may find its…

Positive Messages

Friendship knows no age or hierarchy. Believe in yourself, and learn from those who've come before you. Other issues/themes include "having it all" and dealing with infidelity.

Positive Role Models

Jules is kind, caring, driven, smart, and hardworking -- albeit over-stressed. Ben is polite, very observant, kind, and empathetic. Despite his age, he doesn't feel superior, nor does he feel the need to look down on others who may not be as experienced in life as he is. On the downside, the cast shows a remarkable lack of diversity.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Some innuendo, prompted by a masseuse during a massage (references to sex, erections). Couples kiss while in bed. A married character is discovered to be cheating.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Some swearing, including "s--t," "ass," and "bitch." One character gives another the finger while mouthing "f--k."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Many products/labels seen/mentioned, including Dell, Apple, iPhone, Audi, Sony, Samsung, Casio, Netflix, Skype, Gilt Group, Stella Artois, and Budweiser.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Some social drinking. In one scene, a character downs shots and gets so drunk she throws up in a trash can. One character refers to needing a Xanax.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that despite being a bit formulaic, The Intern -- which stars Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway -- is a deeply felt, heartwarming movie about friendship, careers, and marriage. Although those are fairly serious themes, the movie takes a light touch with them, and teens may find its messages inspiring, particularly the reminders to believe in yourself and to learn from those who've come before you (though they may also take issue with its lack of diversity). Expect some swearing (mainly "ass" and its cousin, "badass," as well as "bitch" and "s--t"), and drinking (once to the point of getting drunk and throwing up), and a few suggestive jokes about erections and sex (plus kissing and a situation involving cheating). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (6)
• Kids say (21)

Based on 6 parent reviews

A sweet encounter of two generations

What's the story.

Ben Whittaker ( Robert De Niro ) is a 70-year-old widower living in Brooklyn who's grown tired of retirement. He's tried everything from tai chi to yoga to Mandarin lessons and has visited his son and his family across the country many times. So when Ben spots a flier announcing that an e-commerce fashion site is looking for "senior interns" -- retirees willing to work as interns -- it seems fated for him to get the position. And he does. His assignment: to assist the website's founder, Jules Ostin ( Anne Hathaway ). But Jules -- who's juggling motherhood, wifehood, adulthood, and an e-commerce site beholden to venture capitalists who are agitating for her to hire a more experienced CEO -- doesn't think she needs an intern. Until she's proven wrong.

Is It Any Good?

THE INTERN wears its very big heart on its (stylish) sleeve, and it's none the worse for it. Director Nancy Meyers knows how to examine the real concerns women face -- how to have a fulfilling career and personal life while continuing to grow as a person -- with humor, compassion, and grace. Hathaway is winning as Jules, a woman who may be on the brink of a nervous breakdown but is so compassionate that you can't help but adore her despite her flaws. She meets her match in Ben, portrayed by De Niro with such warmth you can't help but love him, too.

The movie isn't without its flaws, including a stunning lack of diversity for a movie set in NYC and an oversimplified exploration of the challenges of juggling work and marriage. Nonetheless, Meyers deserves credit for even tackling this thorny subject -- including the tired but sadly still present tug-of-war between stay-at-home moms and working moms -- and presenting a nuanced approach to marital challenges. Ditto for attempting to portray a successful young businesswoman who's neither cut-throat nor ineffective, just overwhelmed and needing to find herself in the process, too.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how The Intern addresses the idea of the generation gap and sharing experiences. What have the two main characters learned during their careers, and how has that positioned them to learn from each other? What do they gain from each other's experiences?

What is the film saying about women in the workplace and their struggles? How does it address the idea of "having it all" (or even "balancing it all")? Do you agree with the choices Jules makes?

How is drinking depicted in the movie? Is it glamorized at all?

Is Jules a role model -- both to viewers and to other characters in the movie? If yes, what makes her so? If not, what makes you doubt her? How does the film depict her as wife, mother and daughter?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 25, 2015
• On DVD or streaming : January 19, 2016
• Cast : Anne Hathaway , Robert De Niro , Nat Wolff
• Director : Nancy Meyers
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : Friendship
• Run time : 121 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : some suggestive content and brief strong language
• Last updated : December 1, 2022

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Review: 'The Intern' has great start and finish, forgettable middle

• September 25, 2015
• Wyatt Crosher

“The Intern” is written and directed by Nancy Meyers and stars Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway. The movie is about a 70-year-old man named Ben Whittaker (De Niro) who finds an opportunity to be an intern at an online fashion site that is run by the incredibly busy Jules Ostin (Hathaway).

This movie had me intrigued, mainly due to the star power. De Niro and Hathaway have shown their incredible acting abilities time and time again, so I figured this was a guaranteed hit. Sometimes I like to be wrong, but this was not one of those times.

The majority of the performances work, specifically De Niro’s. He has taken some poor jobs as of late which have tarnished his astonishing career, but this is not one of those roles. His performance is touching and sweet, as his character gives us a solid backbone to start off with. Rene Russo is also very good in her supporting role, and Hathaway’s performance began to grow on me as the movie progressed. At first I was completely annoyed, but as the layers began to unravel, I liked her character more and more.

The movie’s opening scene, as well as the last thirty minutes of the film, are truly great. The opening is very touching and gives a wonderful introduction to the main character. The final act is also very heartfelt. It has the best storytelling and the best performances of the entire movie, so I don’t know what the hell happened in this middle portion.

From five minutes to about 90 minutes into the movie, the director decided to make this film an extended TV sitcom, with jokes that wouldn’t even make a 6 p.m. CBS special. The jokes are hokey and the script is down right embarrassing, with blatantly obvious conveniences to show how De Niro’s character is such a nice guy. For example, a random desk just happens to be the company junkyard that is overflowing with stuff, so the next morning De Niro does what any good person would do and clean the desk without being asked. It may not sound like a big deal but things like that happened so often that I found myself rolling my eyes constantly. Also, the three stooges that De Niro works with are just not funny. They could be taken completely out and the viewer wouldn’t bat an eye.

I’m not saying this movie needed to be wry of humor. But the dramatic heft and interesting characters made for a much better storyline than the majority of the time when the movie acts like the worst possible episode of “Two and a Half Men” that you can think of (including the Ashton Kutcher era).

This movie also pushes a runtime of over two hours, which is ridiculous knowing some of the dumb jokes and plot points they decided to keep in.

Overall, “The Intern” has solid performances, an interesting premise and a fantastic opening scene as well as a great, somewhat moving conclusion. The problem lies with the entire middle, which feels poorly written, badly unfunny and completely out of place. This movie should not have been a comedy. It should have been a drama with comedy sprinkled in.

It is rare that about 30 percent of a film is great and 70 percent of it is absolutely awful, but that is how I feel about “The Intern.” I suggest watching the opening, going to do something better with your life for about an hour and then coming back for the conclusion.

“The Intern” is a sad disappointment.

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The Intern Reviews

Meyers concocts a few madcap comedy situations to break up the otherwise low-key tone.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 27, 2022

[Where] it succeeds its charm and grace, it lacks in depth. The meat of the story can be summarized in a sentence and ends up feeling somewhat superficially emotional...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 9, 2021

Although many critics panned The Intern, I believe the film has much to say, especially in a society where the elderly are often mocked or ignored just because they seem old-fashioned or have a hard time with technology...

Full Review | Sep 13, 2021

Feels like a checklist designed to make the audience think they got something more than they actually did.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 20, 2021

The cinematic equivalent of a comfy chair, blanket and a mug of hot chocolate (obviously with whipped cream and marshmallows)...

Full Review | Jun 28, 2021

There seemed to be a lot of value placed on male approval, something Jules spent the entire film searching for, and ultimately finding in her intern.

Full Review | Feb 9, 2021

Relies on charm rather than knee slappers.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 3, 2021

Though De Niro is watchable in practically anything, it's practically demeaning that such a revered actor is resorting to involvement in such generic, uninspired stuff.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Dec 4, 2020

The Intern isn't a fantastic film nor does it break any new cinematic ground, but it's enjoyable for what it is and, most importantly, it's also entertaining.

Full Review | Jul 17, 2020

Just go watch Baby Boom.

Full Review | Apr 29, 2020

It seemed kind of sexist.

The Intern presents a heartfelt multi-generational story without harping too hard on its traditional, yet fun heartfelt tropes.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.7/10 | Nov 13, 2019

A well-acted and sometimes moving tale of friendship and life lessons is let down by its own burgeoning desire to appear 'with it'.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 22, 2019

Robert Deniro and Anne Hathaway are really charming in their roles.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Apr 19, 2019

The Intern is very enjoyable and is good at loosening the heartstrings a little. It's not a romance between De Niro and Hathaway (thankfully), but serves its purpose well in being a feel-good, character-driven film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 11, 2019

Nancy Meyers' movies are nice and feel-good, and so effortless that you wonder if she strives for more.

Full Review | Feb 9, 2019

I can't get the antiquated misogynistic, paternalistic norms out of my head.

Full Review | Feb 5, 2019

Strong work from Robert De Niro is wasted in a screenplay that is way too overstuffed with drama.

Full Review | Jan 18, 2019

De Niro and Hathaway are on good form, though the film's attitude to working women is bizarre. You can see why companies want retired interns - with their final salary pensions they're the only people who can afford to work unpaid in New York.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 26, 2018

The film lacked the heart and the conviction that I was expecting, given the weighty premise. The missed opportunity is frustrating, especially from a film that has so much going for it.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Aug 30, 2018

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• DVD & Streaming
• Comedy , Drama

Content Caution

In Theaters

• September 25, 2015
• Robert De Niro as Ben; Anne Hathaway as Jules; Rene Russo as Fiona; Anders Holm as Matt; Zack Pearlman as Davis; Andrew Rannells as Cameron; Adam DeVine as Jason; Linda Lavin as Patty

Home Release Date

• January 19, 2016
• Nancy Meyers

Distributor

• Warner Bros.

Movie Review

Ben Whittaker isn’t exactly unhappy. He’s retired with the means to do pretty much whatever he’d like, within reason. He’s got a good relationship going with his son and his family. A nice home. Solid friends. Decent health.

But Ben Whittaker isn’t exactly happy, either. His loving, lifelong wife has been dead for three years now. And just existing, as he’s been doing since her passing, isn’t cutting it. He’s a man who’s always worked hard. Granted, he worked for 40 years in the manufacture of phone books, which pretty much makes his life’s work obsolete at this point. But he still feels he has something to give. He’s established a work ethic that’s difficult to discard.

So when Ben spots a flyer for a “senior intern” position at a local Internet-based clothing company, he decides that might have potential. He knows very little about fashion, other than the three-button business suits he’s used to regularly wearing. And he knows even less about the Internet. But working with young people and staying in motion holds a great deal of appeal.

After figuring out how to create an online introduction video and making it through a series of interviews, the nicely pressed 70-year-old finally gets the position. (Right before they tell him he really doesn’t have to feel the need to wear a suit and tie. It’s a directive he’s going to ignore, though, because professional is professional to Ben. Old habits die hard.)

Our newly minted older intern is assigned to help the company’s overstretched but extremely capable founder, Jules Ostin. But she doesn’t really want him there and is only going along with the program to be a good example for the rest of the 200-person company. What Jules doesn’t yet know, however, is that her company—and she herself, for that matter—is in need of someone like Ben.

Sometimes an Internet-age business and a completely modern entrepreneur can use a little old-school inspiration.

Sometimes both the young and old have holes to fill and something to give.

Positive Elements

“I’m loyal and trustworthy,” Ben says in his interview process. Indeed he is. And that’s just the kind of stuff that makes a difference for Jules and her company of twenty- and thirtysomethings. As Ben starts helping out and forming friendships, he begins to inspire the young men around him to take better care of their appearance. (Hey, it’s an aspirational movie. Nobody said it had to be realistic!) He encourages people. They respond by putting more focus on solid relationships. His soft-spoken demeanor and wise observations eventually have a very calming and almost parental impact on Jules as well. In fact, Jules and Ben form a sort of loving, father-daughter bond that benefits them both.

Ben certainly admires Jules’ work ethic. She’s the kind of boss who personally takes customer service calls to make sure her business delivers the excellence that it promises. And she rightly laments what the current societal age has done to young men. “Women went from girls to women,” she says. “While men went from men to boys.”

Jules and her husband, Matt, have marital difficulties. And though they really never fix the core of their problem, they do at least apologize for their mistakes (and an infidelity).

Sexual Content

When Ben first meets the company’s in-house masseuse, Fiona, she lightly massages his tight shoulders and lower back. He hastily grabs a newspaper to cover his unexpected arousal. Later she offers him an in-office foot rub that gives an accidental observer the impression that she’s doing something more sexual to him. The two do start dating, and the film implies that they sleep together. (She’s over at his house in the morning.) We see a different female acquaintance kiss Ben on the lips.

Matt lies about his activities and is spotted kissing another woman, making it clear that he’s having an extramarital affair. (He admits to it later.) A fully dressed Jules and Matt kiss and embrace while in bed. One of the guys Ben works with talks about having sex with his girlfriend’s roommate.

Violent Content

Crude or profane language.

One spoken f-word is joined by a mouthed one and a text message sporting the truncated phrase “I f-ed up.” We hear two or three uses each of “a–” and “b–ch.” “Oh my god” is spit out nearly 20 times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Both Ben and Jules have glasses of wine with dinner. They share a couple of beers and a pizza, and order wine during a flight. Jules and Matt drink vodka. Company employees do shots at a bar, and Jules gets drunk, eventually vomiting into a trash can. Ben spots Jules’ driver drinking from a flask and steps in to take over the driving duties.

Other Negative Elements

Ben and several others break into a woman’s house to delete an errant email.

At a time when every situation comedy and romantic comedy at the movie house seems to be the same kind of edgy and raunchy, uh, Trainwreck, you really start longing for something nice to laugh over and enjoy. And The Intern initially appears to fit the bill. After all, the idea of a distinguished and retired gentleman injecting his old-school suit-and-tie sensibilities into the working world of some T-shirt-clad Millennials has such an appealing ring to it.

The film starts out so well, too. Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway create the kind of likeable and earnest characters that just feel good to watch for a couple of hours. The pic raises questions about the place of family and business in a stretched-too-thin world. It glances at how our society has taken all the manliness and maturity out of men. And it even has De Niro’s Ben sweetly salute the value of a wonderful marriage by way of him probing the pain of losing his longstanding mate.

Unfortunately, The Intern doesn’t have enough experience to know where to go from there. It’s quite frankly too PC-minded to suggest that anything in today’s or yesterday’s societal choices are solidly good or bad . And so it never quite resolves its story. It tiptoes around its family issues and infidelities, throws in a few crude sight gags and dabbles in some strange silliness to cover up the awkwardness it seems to feel, and then slaps on a quick bow right before the closing credits.

So The Intern does some good work. But it never finishes the job.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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The Intern review – thankless work for Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway

Strong performances are hampered by both scenario and script in Nancy Meyers’s comedy, whose emotional third act proves too little, too late

R obert De Niro is the last person you’d think to cast in a remake of Amélie, but if Nancy Meyers’s love letter to workaholism is good for anything, it’s seeing the star of Taxi Driver and Mean Streets as a fastidious fixer of other people’s problems. Despite a dopey elevator pitch and some truly wretched screenwriting, The Intern still manages to be the most interesting thing De Niro has done in quite some time. If you don’t get permanent ocular damage from continuously rolling your eyes during the first 90 minutes, the final half-hour will remind you why he was once considered a great actor.

We meet Ben Whittaker, a 70-year-old retired widower in Brooklyn, via a video cover letter. Battling boredom, he’s applying as a senior (as in senior citizen) intern for a local internet startup, an online clothing shop created by Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway) that has turned into a manic, overnight success. While Ostin is the type of boss that has a hand in every aspect of the business – and zanily rides her bicycle from the customer-service phone banks across the open-plan office to a designer’s meeting – she has no recollection of approving this new outreach program. Her chipper but worried lieutenant Cameron (Andrew Rannells, as the smiling physical embodiment of exposition) pushes for the unlikely idea. Everyone at the company is so young; maybe some experience would do them some good.

Experience is oozing out of Whittaker’s pores. He worked for 40 years designing phone books, and, while they may not be in demand any more, the man knows business. After a lengthy stint of merely smiling and staying out of everyone’s way, he soon gets the ear of the boss, and benignly starts guiding her toward more confident decision-making, both at work and at home.

Meyers and Hathaway tackle a tough subject: young mothers with demanding jobs. Ostin is a caring, intelligent woman whose only real foe is the human need to waste a few hours each night on sleep. Her stay-at-home husband Matt (Anders Holm) seems, at first, to be the perfect partner for this set-up. But to quote Meyers’s earlier picture, something’s gotta give. These frustrations eventually come pouring out in an emotional third act that is tender and relatable. The problem is getting there.

The bulk of The Intern is a morass of wackiness, a chain of sequences shot in a flat and predictable manner that range from tedious to idiotic. There’s a moment when one character mistakenly thinks they’ve walked in on a sex act, a gag that was tired when Three’s Company repeated it each week. There’s another bit where everyone suddenly becomes a cat burglar. Meyers cribs from a source worse than sitcoms: her pacing is more like reality television, and composer Theodore Shapiro enhances this with awful transition cues like cymbal rolls, making everything feel like a cheap trailer for a movie you may one day actually see.

Weirder still is Meyers’s lust for the corporate world. Again, it’s hard to frown too much on a film about the struggles of working women, and Hathaway gives a strong performance, but take a step back and there’s the realisation that all this sturm und drang isn’t for a surgeon, but a gal hawking schmattes . De Niro’s Whittaker applied for this job because he was bored in retirement. He couldn’t maybe have done some charitable volunteer work? Later, he positions himself as the linchpin of the organisation, but at no point does anyone offer him a paying job. (It’s OK, though: in Meyers’s New York, everyone drives their SUV home to their enormous brownstone.)

If the scenario for The Intern sounds awful, that’s because it is. And it isn’t as if Meyers writes dialogue like Oscar Wilde. Still, Hathaway and De Niro have some real chemistry, and by the end of the picture, they have developed something you rarely see represented in films: a male-female friendship that isn’t familial or sexual. And for that, this internship deserves a little bit of credit.

• First look review
• Robert De Niro
• Anne Hathaway
• Comedy films

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The intern Review

02 Oct 2015

121 minutes

Intern, The

Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give) returns to the acting legend/young star formula that served her so well in 2003’s Diane Keaton/Keanu Reeves flirtation, teaming up Robert De Niro (aged intern) and Anne Hathaway (boss) but shifting the relationship to something more familial. Meyers’ insights into ageing are wry and moving, and there are fun twists as De Niro’s widowed workie instantly charms the hipsters at Hathaway’s internet start-up. Yet while the performances engage, as more hackneyed crises hit (extra-marital affairs, motherhood versus career etc.), sentiment overpowers any tantalising hint of Nora Ephron-style salt.

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In one of the early scenes in "The Internship," heroes Billy and Nick ( Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson ) have a video-conference interview with two recruiters from Google at a computer in a public library. Billy and Nick are two forty-something wristwatch salesmen who lost their jobs when their company folded (nobody uses watches anymore). Both men are now adrift in a world that has passed them by. After a long night of sadly Googling the "jobs for people with no skills", Vaughn's Billy stumbles upon Google's competitive internship program and signs up himself and his buddy Nick for an interview. Batting away the children who want to get on the public computer, Billy and Nick shout at top-volume into the screen, despite the fact that they are told by the recruiters, "Guys, we can hear you". Billy and Nick jam their heads close together like an old vaudeville team posing for a manic promotional photograph and jabber right into the camera, exuding not only obvious technical incompetence but blatantly embarrassing need.

Both men seem to be on the verge of mental collapse. They're Willy Lomans on speed. It's excruciating to watch. And hilarious.

Directed by Shawn Levy and written by Vince Vaughn and Jared Stern , "The Internship" stuffs some creaky gear-shifts and boring exposition in its first 15 minutes; even Will Ferrell's one scene falls a little flat. But the Google interview is the moment the film explodes. The energy is uproarious. 

Billy and Nick (miraculously, after that debacle of an interview), are chosen to join the Internship summer program at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. They will compete with other "Nooglers" (that's what they're called, don't blame me!) for the coveted positions offered to only a couple of interns at the end of the summer. Billy and Nick, of course, are the oldest people in any room at Google. The college kids assigned to their team immediately treat them with scorn and disrespect, with good reason: Billy, in trying to describe an idea he has for an App (an idea that already exists, of course), keeps saying that after you take the picture with your phone, you put it "on the line".

The internship program is run by a Mr. Chetty, played wonderfully by Aasif Mandvi as a Google version of Lou Gossett , Jr.'s drill sergeant in " An Officer and a Gentleman ." Mr. Chetty is cold, frightening, and unapproachable. The other members of Billy and Nick's team are played by Tiya Sircar , Dylan O'Brien, Tobit Raphael, and Josh Brener. The script delineates every character smartly, following them on similar journeys of transformation over the course of the summer. Tobit Raphael is Yo Yo, a kid so pressured by his mother to be the best that he picks at his eyebrows (by the end of the film he only has one eyebrow). Tiya Sircar plays a bubbly young woman who talks a big game about her sexy "cosplay", only to reveal in a later scene that she's never had a boyfriend, and all her experiences are figments of her imagination. Dylan O'Brien's Stewart is a serious young man who can barely drag his eyes up from his phone; he displays the practical cynicism of a generation that knows that graduating from college is not a guarantee of anything. 

The team does not bond immediately, and nobody wants Billy or Nick slowing them down. It's tense. But during a ferocious Quidditch match with a rival team, filmed with the intensity of a World Cup final, Billy gives an inspirational speech to his team about a "little welder girl" who wanted to go to dance school and never gave up. It's extremely stupid and extremely enjoyable, and the team bonds and comes from behind to almost win the match. They start to work together. Billy and Nick play catch-up in terms of technology, and, of course, the old geezers have a couple of life lessons to teach the young whippersnappers, too. Everybody wins.

The movie depicts Google culture as if it were a benevolent version of life in a cult compound, with everyone wearing colored beanies and "Noogle" T-shirts, riding colorful Google bikes around the campus, and taking the Google shuttle bus into town. The interns compete in different challenges: coding, answering helpline calls, locating bugs. It's hard to believe that a scene about answering a Google helpline could be a gripping cliffhanger, but Levy and his cast pull it off.

There are a couple of problems with the material, none of which ended up mattering much to me. One is the glorification of Google as both a successful company and a mystical entity that makes the world a better place. This sentiment is treated without irony. The food is free at the commissary! There are "nap pods" where you can rest! There's a gigantic slide between floors! It's the best place ever! Another potential hitch is that Billy and Nick are angling for an anonymous entry-level job at a gigantic corporation that's hardly the Emerald City that everyone seems to think it is. How long would these two last in homogenized corporate culture, anyway? Do they really want to become a Noogler, filled with "Googleyness"? Their enthusiasm doesn't quite track.

The flip side of these caveats, though, leads us to the underbelly of the film, its real guts. Google is just the excuse to tell a story about the challenges of growing older, the importance of taking risks, and what it means to be a man in a changing world (shades of Willy Loman again). On that level, the film is solid and quite effective. The moments of sentiment, when they come, feel fully earned, and they come out of characterization. 

In time you start to care about Yo Yo's emotional life, for example, and when he busts loose in one scene, it's quite satisfying. Owen Wilson's character has never had a relationship that lasts longer than a couple of months, and during his time at Google he begins a flirtation with a serious woman who is always on her way to a meeting (played by the fantastic Rose Byrne ). She's a tough nut to crack, and there's a beautiful quiet scene in which she suddenly reveals some of her life regrets to Nick. The director handles the film's tonal dips and swerves confidently. He allows "The Internship" to slow down on occasion, and gives both the story and its characters room to breathe.

The ending pumps up the suspense in an artificial way, but by that point the real work has already been done. It's not about winning the competition. It never was. Billy and Nick are baffled by much of what they encounter at Google, and both have their challenges. They're only in their forties but they're already being treated as old and irrelevant; it's a new experience, one they are not yet used to. 

Both actors play that anxiety beautifully. You can see disappointment and fear flickering in Vince Vaughn's eyes: he is someone who is used to breezing through on his charm, but the charm is no longer working. He can't just grin at people anymore in a cute conspiratorial way and get away with murder. Everyone sees through him now. And Owen Wilson's Nick is a bit of a follower. As long as he had Billy by his side, he didn't have to make his own choices. Now it's time to step up and be an adult. Besides, some of the things they bring to the table at Google are relevant and necessary. At one point, Wilson gives Vaughn a pep talk, saying, "You're tough! You grew up in the '70s! You didn't wear a bike helmet. You're tough!"

It's no surprise that Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn have such entertaining chemistry onscreen. We saw it before in "The Wedding Crashers", the gigantic sleeper hit of 2005. What is a surprise is that it has taken them this long to appear together again. In the studio system days, they would have been set to work cranking out comedies as an established duo, beloved by a vast audience. But in today's more individualistic, independent industry, it's taken Wilson and Vaughn nine years to get together again. It's good to see them.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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