Binzento Journal: "The Intern" - A Review

Binzento Journal

The Intern - A Review

I was invited to prescreen The Intern, now playing in theatres, starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway – the first film where both actors worked together.

“Differences of outlook or opinion between people of different generations”, the definition of a generation gap is portrayed in the latest film The Intern written and directed Nancy Meyers. The story is about a 70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) has discovered that his life is lacking purpose and excitement after retirement. Seizing an opportunity to get back in the modern working force, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site, founded and run by Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). Jules at first felt that Ben doesn’t fit in her company, mainly because of his age, questioning his ability and competency in her fast growing business. Eventually Jules found that not only Ben is competent, he also takes on the roles as her driver, an employee, a mentor, and a best friend.

The Intern not only focuses on the differences and misunderstandings between young people and seniors, but also touch base on other challenges that our current generation face. One that’s evident is gender role reversal. The film highlights the fact that in today’s America, more and more women become the bread earner, while their husbands as the stay at home dad. Gender, not defined by the biological genetic sense, is becoming less important. Notable lines that relate to this is during the scene when Jules and her male co-workers celebrated in a bar, she questioned when did “men” became “boys” and “girls” had empowered themselves to become strong women. Then there is Jules’ assistant Becky (Christina Scherer) who’ve earned a higher education but only to work twelve hours a day without being acknowledge by her boss – A reflection on how a university degree today doesn’t guarantee you a career-path and success in life. And of course inter-personal relationship struggles between family, friends, partners and the unexpected social media world.

‘The Intern’ in my opinion is one of those films that separates itself from traditional American Hollywood drama, in that it doesn’t need to have a M. Night Shyamalan’s twist of plot, J. J. Abrams’ fire explosions, Wes Craven’s jump scare, or Weitz brothers’ sex comedy to keep the audience connected. Rather we are assumed familiar with, and almost clear about the emotions of each character and their situations. The film have touched base on the very heart and soul of reality today, and how we live in a dynamic world moving ever so quickly in the past half of a century - We might fall into a trap of trying to ‘keep up’ what’s ahead of us to succeed in life but forget to ‘look back’ what our parents or our grandparents have done in the past to become successful.

Perhaps as a fashion writer, the very setting of the film as an web-based fashion business has kept my interest from the beginning. The light-hearted mood and storyline, and some times humorous dialogues encourage you room to think – NOT about what’s happening in the film, but your current state in life. And ask yourself, are the ‘new’ or ‘hip’ ideas the better way to discover solutions to problems? Or should we stop arguing with our parents and elderly who have beyond our years of experience and listen to their advice for once, or walk their road of map to success. 

The Intern is currently playing in theatres across Canada.

Do the things you love with passion; Learn from those you admire; Strive to become an expert at what you do xx

Binzento Vincente: A Fashion & Lifestyle Blog