The Intern

Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway bring an engaging warmth and chemistry to Nancy Meyers’ slick romcom.

Christina Scherer, Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway

Now aged 70, Ben Whittaker has retired and spends his days attending funerals, going to the cinema, practising yoga and learning Mandarin. But it’s not enough. He then catches sight of a flyer advertising a senior internship for an on-line fashion company. It’s a job. Ben passes his interview with ease and finds himself appointed the personal intern to the company’s founder and manager Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). Jules, who is highly successful, ambitious and proactive – not to mention busy, busy, busy – doesn’t even notice Ben. Still, Ben has a way of making himself useful…

Considering that the director Nancy Meyers is 65-years-old and is most famous for such romcoms as What Women Want and The Holiday, one can be pretty sure what to expect. Theodore Shapiro’s guitar-and-piano score is relentless, the running time a little generous (121 minutes) and the gloss as thick as the contents of an industrial tin of Dulux. Even so, it’s always good to see something not stapled to a teenage mentality and De Niro and Hathaway do generate a genuine warmth and chemistry. Throw in a slew of agreeable supporting turns and a snappy screenplay by Meyers, and The Intern amounts to a rather agreeable diversion. And De Niro, surely, has never been this engaging a light leading man – ever.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, Rene Russo, Adam DeVine, Anders Holm, Christina Scherer, Andrew Rannells, Zack Pearlman, Nat Wolff, Linda Lavin, Celia Weston, and the voice of Mary Kay Place.

Dir Nancy Meyers, Pro Nancy Meyers and Suzanne Farwell, Screenplay Nancy Meyers, Ph Stephen Goldblatt, Pro Des Kristi Zea, Ed Robert Leighton, Music Theodore Shapiro, Costumes Jacqueline Oknaian.

RatPac-Dune Entertainment/Waverly Films-Warner Bros.
121 mins. USA. 2015. Rel: 2 October 2015. Cert. 12A.