The Intern (2015)

Rating: • • (out of 5)
Age Recommendation: 10+
Based on the previews, I thought I was going to enjoy The Intern (2015).  I'm not a huge De Niro fan, but I've generally enjoyed his comedy roles.  The premise looked cute: a senior citizen working as an intern at a fashion company.  And it did have cute parts... but ultimately this movie was disappointingly slow-moving and dreary.

Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway did fine in their roles as charming old man and hectic businesswoman.  His humorously overly-expressive face even received comment within the movie.  The acting was fine; it's what surrounded the acting that made this film a disappointment.

Problem number one was stretching out the first half.  There was no real enemy and no real goal.  The entire cast of characters had one emotion: mild amusement at the unusual premise of an old intern and the generation gap between twenty-somethings and seventy-somethings.  Even the music was lackluster. Pretty much every funny scene from the trailer was in the first half of the movie, and pretty much every funny scene in the movie was in the trailer--with one huge exception.  Right near the end of that first half we got one truly funny scene involving a misaddressed e-mail.  I feel like the whole audience perked up during this scene and shook off the sleepiness that had fallen.

The tone of the second half did a 180.  Our lighthearted but lengthy introduction gave way to a surprisingly depressing second half.  A villain--of sorts--was introduced and the previously foreshadowed problem of finding a CEO actually came to the forefront.  De Niro continued to be a perfect (and perfectly charming) intern and gave advice and handkerchiefs to everyone without ever needing any for himself.  He mentioned his deceased wife only once, I think, and seemed to be completely over her (in spite of having loved her for 20-odd years).  The man didn't have any flaws--not even have health issues, which I fully expected to pop up à la Grumpy Old Men (1993).

Anyway, when we finally got to the end, I actually turned to my family members and asked, "Is that it?" because, in spite of its incredible length, I found the ending dissatisfying.  A scene that was presented as romantic was, in fact, anti-romantic.  I don't want to spoil it, but I will say that feminists will probably have a conniption.

Ultimately this movie fell apart because it didn't know what it was. A light drama? A heavy comedy? (Is that a thing?)  The preachiness about how the "old way" was better gets repetitive.  The other elderly interns are completely forgotten--where did they go?  Anne Hathaway's character's daughter has some really dumb lines.  There are far too many jokes about De Niro's character's libido--yet they are mild enough that a child would just say "why is the old man making those strange moaning noises?"  The second half is depressing.  Yet, in spite of all of these flaws, the acting is solid.

Summary: I'm not saying to avoid this movie, but I'm not saying you need to go see it, either.  If you choose to, just be warned that it is slow and it masquerades as feminist but really isn't (if that sort of thing bothers you).  You can take the whole family, but it's definitely not aimed at kids, and I don't think they would appreciate it.  There are some cute moments hidden within, and some well-acted dramatic scenes, but just know it is not the comedy that was advertised.

The Good: comedic De Niro faces, some clever lines, dramatic acting by Anne Hathaway, e-mail scene, cute characters
The Bad: long, slow, recycled jokes, poorly written little girl
The Even Worse: depressing end