Official Synopsis
In “The Intern,” De Niro stars as Ben Whittaker, a 70-year-old widower who has discovered that retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Seizing an opportunity to get back in the game, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site, founded and run by Jules Ostin (Hathaway).
I honestly have not followed the marketing campaign for The Intern. I didn’t know what it was about going into it, which is sometimes a better situation when trying to judge a film (I’m looking at you In Bruges, which completely wasn’t as comedic as advertised). What came out of it is a touching film that was subtle in presence and pleasant in execution. Nothing particularly great, but much like its main character, Ben, it didn’t have to be.
Let’s great right into it.
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The first act starts out intriguing. We have our main man, Ben (Robert De Niro), talking about his life and what has led him to the decision to become a senior intern at a random company. We get a good sense of where Ben is within in his life and a great sense of what type of person he is in the span of the first 10 minutes of the movie. His progression into his internship role isn’t surprising and his ‘less than frantic’ personality is understandable for a man who is 70 years old and isn’t looking for anything permanent in life, rather just something to keep him occupied. In short, you could not have had a better first act for a film like this.
The second act focuses on his new business relationship with over-the-top, work obsessed Jules (Anne Hathaway), who is trying to balance a fast-moving, successful online company while maintaining a functional home life. Ben is working underneath Jules, trying to keep her focused, but relaxed every chance he can get. The second act does its best to throw everything at Ben and does a good job of defining Jules and her life. It sputters a bit when trying to find a connecting point between Jules and Ben, as it walks through various avenues of adversity and redemption between them. This portion of the act had a bit of problem with ordering the adversity and redemption. As it should go, Jules and Ben should start off cold, trying to understand each other. As the act goes on, it should put together a build that slowly draws them onto a level where they understand each other. Sadly, it starts off rough, shoots up to great, comes back to good and then drops out unexpectedly. Before the act wraps, the relationship is brought back together for act three, as Ben will be needed to help her sort out a personal issue. In short, it’s messy with the storyline between the two.
The third act, which I won’t give away too much, does its best to take attention away from the second act flaws. The cat and mouse game that the second act concentrated on between Ben and Jules shifts into a cooperative father/daughter relationship that prevents Jules from falling into a bad pit of despair. It isn’t the type of problem/resolution that you would expect from a film like this, which is great because it’s always nice to see Hollywood change things up once in a while, but the third act just ends abruptly and almost ruins it all. When I say it ends abruptly, I mean it ends just like-
Overall, The Intern is pleasant, not overwhelmingly entertaining, but good enough to enjoy. It has some issues, but nothing it can’t overcome, sans the end.
On the Blu-ray side of things, Warner Home Video does a great job with yet another theatrical release. As I have stated over and over in the past, they have perfected the transfer process from film to HD to Blu-ray. The Intern is another example of it.
In terms of special features, here’s what you’re getting:
– Learning From Experience
– Designs on Life
– The Three Interns
Not a lot going on here, but enough to compliment the movie.
