In the hands of anyone else, The Intern could have fallen back on cliched jokes of seniors not able to hack it in the online world, but Myers' script casts Ben as a kind old soul who is more than able to handle himself in an environment where e-mails are the preferred mode of communication and a suit and tie is viewed as quaint. Ben’s old school wisdom, such as a handkerchief being a required accessory for every man and actually talking to someone trumps a tweet overtime, would have left your eyes rolling at high speed in your head if it wasn’t backed by DeNiro’s effortless charm. Coasting it would be a kind description of the legendary actor’s last few roles, but here he seems to be putting in the effort, making for an incredibly likeable character that makes the more saccharine moments that much easier to swallow. Hathaway isn’t breaking much of a sweat as the stressed out fashion magnate, but she has an undeniable chemistry with her co-lead and handles herself well when the spotlight is turned on Jules.
While the narrative doesn’t add up to much more than a series of chuckle worthy complications for Ben to deal with (leading a team of much younger interns on a mission to delete an e-mail sent to the wrong person proves to be the stand out), the light hearted and touching tone leaves it chugging along at a decent pace that never outstays its welcome. There are attempts at social commentary on the status of men and women in the workplace, but they feel half hearted and out of place with the movies incredibly light tone. Sure, it couldn’t all be light and breezy and needed some drama to spice up proceedings, but it doesn’t really fit and has you waiting for another scene of Ben being the cool grandfather to his younger co-workers.
As a whole, The Intern is the cinematic equivalent of a big hug. It’ll leave a smile on your face and that is all it needs to do.
