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'The Intern' Is a Pleasant Escape

The Intern is such a gentle little movie that it's a little hard to see what writer-director Nancy Myers is trying to do.

But an interview in Time magazine helps a lot. In it, Myers compares Robert De Niro's character to her father and grandfather, a "kind of man (that) seems to be disappearing," who is "not damaged," whatever she may mean by that. And she suggests that Anne Hathaway represents a "counter" to the usual "prejudice toward the female boss," but which I assume she means against the female boss, who is usually, according to Myers, "the villain, a sexual predator," or an uptight character that nobody likes.

The application to Robert De Niro is obvious, and his role is interesting in a lot of ways. For one thing, he is not a romantic hero-- The Intern is not a love story. Neither is it a story about conflict between old and young, although it almost ought to be. De Niro wants to feel needed, so he takes a job as an intern in a clothing business under Hathaway's leadership, where he encounters no objections to an old retired guy taking a job that should, in a time of high unemployment, properly go to a young guy. Instead, he becomes a general advisor to everybody, including Hathaway, on matters including computers and spouses and anything else that comes up.

There's very little story but a lot of personality, if almost no psychological study, in The Intern, and if it doesn't much relate to the real world, it's a refreshing escape from it for a couple of hours.

But one can wonder why Hathaway needs quite so much advice, both personal and professional, especially from a 70-year-old man who has spent his whole life in a very different field.

The Intern is not much more than a couple hours of relaxation. But maybe, these days, that's enough and more.