March 29, 2024

TheIntern
BY MICHELLE MAISONVILLE

The Intern is a feel good movie with some great laughs, despite ending abruptly, leaving the audience without closure.

The movie features Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway. De Niro plays Ben Whittaker, a retired widower, who feels a void in his life without the love of his life or a job. When he sees an advertisement seeking senior interns at About the Fit, an online clothing store, it’s almost like it’s meant to be.

Whittaker is hired along with three other interns, each being assigned to work for a department or a person. Whittaker is assigned to work for Jules Ostin, founder of About the Fit. To say Ostin is skeptical of the 70-year-old intern would be an understatement.

Ostin is a stressed, very frazzled, sleep-deprived businesswoman, riding her bike through the office to save time, scheduling meetings down to the minute and staying at the office late into the night. On top of that Ostin also has a young daughter and a husband who stays at home to raise their daughter, Paige.

Whittaker and Ostin become best friends, a refreshing change from the usual boy meets girl and falls in love movies that dominate the screens.

Ostin’s husband, Matt, is played by Anders Holm, known for his roles in movies like The Interview and Neighbors, The role is a bad fit for Holm. He seems very awkward and out of place the entire movie. His character Matt also has little chemistry with his on-screen wife, Jules, and daughter, Paige. Ostin and Whittaker’s close relationship and chemistry is what holds the movie together. You can see their relationship grow as Ostin stops looking at Whittaker as just a senior trying to stay busy while in retirement and starts looking at him as a serious asset to her company. The two become closer as the movie goes on and Whittaker even becomes close with Paige.

The first half of the movie is full of laughs but the second half takes a serious turn when Ostin has some important decisions she needs to make. Whittaker helps her through these with his grandfatherly advice.

The movie is ruined because of how drawn out it is. It is a relatively simple plot that should have been done in an hour and a half but instead, was drawn out to two hours. With this amount of screen time you’d think they would at least make a good ending, but the movie ends with Ostin rushing to find Whittaker, who took the day off work, to tell him she changed her mind about a big decision she was struggling to make. The movie ends before she tells him and we are left with assumptions and guesses on how the story ends.

The Intern is not a must-see movie, but it’s nice for passing time and giving you a few good laughs on a rainy afternoon. I give it three out of five stars.

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