"The Intern" turned out to be the movie I was not expecting. The poster, and trailer, suggested it was Anne Hathaway's turn to play "The Devil Wears Prada," with she playing the micromanaging boss, to Robert De Niro's laid back intern. Instead, it turns out to be something else. It is also sweet to the point of being cloying.
I should have known from the start; I mean, it was directed by Nancy Meyers. Anne Hathaway plays Jules Osin, who would like to be her generation's Anna Wintour, but just can't cut it. Robert De Niro plays Ben, a 70-year-old widower, who, with his savvy, shows her that she can--and how! It's all so charming and predictable that, after reading a bitch fest like "The Knockoff," it was almost refreshing; it was refreshing seeing Anne Hathaway have fun with a role, after the dark turn she took as Fantine!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We go from a shot of seniors in a park doing Tai Chi in a park--where it ends, as well, In between, De Niro's Ben imparts his hard earned wisdom to Hathaway, and her cheating house spouse, played as a slacker Franzen type, by Anders Holm.
In just two brief scenes, one at a funeral, where she says nary a word, Linda Lavin manages to steal the show. It is too bad the movie did not have more of her nastiness; it could have used it. Oh, and from now on, when you want the voice of a nagging mother, call Mary Kay Place. She performs the same job here as she did six years before, in "Julie and Julia."
The Park Slope settings, the Brooklyn ambiance....it is all so comfortable and predictable it is like getting too much candy at one time. "The Intern" needed some edginess to it--De Niro is certainly capable of that--to make it more than just the imperfect (unlike the perfect of Vincente Minnelli) confection it so desperately wants to be.
But, then, again, girls, it is Nancy Meyers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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