Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) is a 70 year old Brooklyn widower and a retired executive from the phone company. His son's family lives out of town. He tries to fill his days of leisure. He spots a flyer advertising internships for senior citizens. It's a fast-paced fashion internet commerce site run by Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). It's been a hectic 18 months for the married mother of little girl and she is reluctantly forced to use Ben as her assistant. Her husband Matt gave up his job to be the stay-at-home dad. Fiona (Rene Russo) is the company masseuse. Ben befriends everyone until Fiona starts to find him indispensable.

Nancy Meyers gets a bad rap as the rom-com has become a passe genre. This is not a rom-com but it is a friend-com. De Niro is a little too perfect as the magical old guy with all the answers and lessons for the young ones. This movie is a bit too neat and clean with the characters. Hathaway is the driven multi-tasking internet executive. The characters may be stock but the actors make them breathe. Some of the side characters have some fun. The big twist (not that surprising) does not really raise the drama although Nancy is trying to say somethings. It all combines to create a nice pairing of these two great actors.

Totally bored with life, Robert DeNiro's character seeks out a new career. He had worked out, traveled the world, read books, on and on. While he is relatively happy, he feels empty. He is seventy years old when he reads a flyer on a bulletin board. A rising company is looking for "senior" interns, that is, people who have had tons of experience who can be used as a kind of publicity stunt. Ann Hathaway is the wunderkind of a clothing company that has feasted on the Internet. DeNiro finds himself with no power, attached to Miss Hathaway, but doing no work. Eventually, by taking on some of the hard work and showing utter kindness, he manages to become quite the institution in the firm. His boss is trying to balance both her career and her marriage (and daughter). At some point, it is decided that she should hire a CEO and give power over to him/her. Soon DeNiro finds himself at the beck and call of Hathaway, becoming part of the family. This is a touching, but predictable effort. It's still a nice two hours and DeNiro steals every scene he is in.

Love comedy/drama when done right, have liked some of Nancy Meyers' previous work, Robert De Niro at his best is one of the best actors of the latter half of the century (evidenced in 'Taxi Driver', 'Godfather Part II' and 'Raging Bull') and Anne Hathaway has also given good performances. So 'The Intern' seemed promising.

'The Intern' didn't quite live up to expectations, it could have done more with its timely premise and does have things resolved too easily (the cheating subplot in a nausea-inducing forgiveness/reconsideration speech) and characters written too neatly and cleanly (with Ben being very amiable and irresistibly likable if too perfect, Jules is the only one with any real arc). At its best though, it is easy to warm to and for the first half it was continual engagement that didn't demand too much but did what it said on the tin.

What makes 'The Intern' work is the two leads and their chemistry together. De Niro is just a joy in one of his best performances in recent years, while Hathaway is a charming high-flyer with good comic timing, succeeding in allowing character growth to a potentially problematic character. Their chemistry, for such an unorthodox pairing, is so natural and grows warmer without doing it too quickly. Rene Russo is good value though her role is not large while the performances of the colleagues are amusing. The only weak performance with a very flimsily developed and bland character comes from Anders Holm.

It looks good, it's slickly shot and edited and the locations and Hathaway's wardrobe are beautiful on the eyes. The direction is mostly controlled and the film goes at a sprightly pace in the first half. The irresistible charm and a script filled with pleasantly amusing lines and small scenes (such as De Niro turning up at the office in a suit, with a calculator and addressing himself, in a way that's very business-like, in the mirror that reminds one fondly of 'Taxi Driver') and wry observations and insight, taking care in making characters as amiable as possible while never fully developing most of them. The story may lack depth and be unsurprising with some dramatic short cuts in the second half but mostly engages and is charmingly frothy and lively.

Sadly, things take a downturn in a jarring tonal shift to a clunky second half though thanks to De Niro and Hathaway it's not unwatchable. Really admired what 'The Intern' did in giving Jules an arc and it was interesting to begin with, apart from benefitting from more show and less tell at how good she was at her job and such, but halfway through became awkwardly indecisive. The sprightly, feel-good and very easy to warm to tone of the first half is replaced in the second half by pacing that tends to sag and things taking too much of a melodramatic and schmaltzy tone.

For instance the heart to heart/forgiveness scene could have been heartfelt but makes one feel nauseous instead. The wry insights remain but the more sporadic comedic elements don't feel as well timed or placed. As said, Anders Holm doesn't have the same enthusiasm as the rest of the cast and gets lost amidst everything else which does hurt Jules' character arc when she has such a dullard of a spouse. The music score is nothing that sticks in the mind, for music that's pretty repetitive this was a problem.

Overall, decent enough film if one of two halves, starting off very well but later mostly goes down south. 6/10 Bethany Cox