“The Intern” is a movie with charm and poise that captivated the hearts of audiences, until it opened pandora’s box. Then, all the evils of the world came flooding out, like the struggles of working mothers, house husbands and generational divides. The plot is tongue tied with disjointed ventures into sexism, ageism and workaholism. Director Nancy Meyers proved to be a little in over her head when tackling these controversial issues. The film stars Anne Hathaway as Jules Ostin, the rising star executive of a web startup fashion company, and Robert De Niro as Ben Whittaker, her 70-year-old senior intern.
First, we get to know Ben. He is the lost treasure of a different time, known as the silent generation. He quickly rejects retirement and applies to be a senior intern at Jule’s company, a situation which was poorly explained. Jules has very little knowledge or power regarding Ben’s assignment as her personal intern, considering she is the founding executive of this company.
Although she resists at first, Jules and Ben quickly blossom into true friends, with Jules relying on his penchant for old-fashioned chivalry to extract her from a variety of sticky situations. As a man of the silent generation, Ben is quiet yet observant. He carries an original leather suitcase, which seems to symbolize himself. The assumption is clearly, they don’t make men like that anymore, as Jules glances at her inadequately masculine coworkers. Ben is the shining emblem of manhood, that stands in contrast to these lumpy, unshaven and sloppily-clothed hipster man-children that inhabit the rest of Jule’s life. Even Jule’s husband is a total hipster, complete with the box-framed glasses.
The heart of this movie lies in the affectionate give-and-take relationship of millennials like Jule and the silent generation like Ben. While they each have their own strengths and weaknesses, they find fulfillment through their connection to each other.
The driving conflict of the plot is whether Jules should hire a male CEO to oversee the company, providing wise patriarchal authority which supposedly pleases investors. Jules, at first, appears to be a little too perfect with her caring house husband, cutesy daughter and a cheerful commitment to workaholism. She proudly declares that she never sleeps, or rarely indulges in some serious shuteye. The downfall of the film begins in its relentless examination of the working woman, and a constant fallback on gender stereotypes.
While tropes of feminism are often talked about among the characters, the film falls short of creating an empowering message for women. When the significant shortcomings of Jule’s husband are discovered, it is straightforwardly blamed on her status as a high powered executive. She even feels guilty for castrating her husband to the status of stay-at-home dad through her unusual success in business, and quickly resolves to forgive his mistreatment. Of course, Ben stoically advises her not to forgive her husband quite so easily, but this is just cotton candy advice in the end.
The true resolution of the movie lies in whether or not Jules will agree to hire a CEO to oversee the company. Whether she does this or not is actually irrelevant to the heart of the film. While Ben constantly assures her that she is a strong, confident and independent woman, this message is frequently de-constructed by her recurring role as a classic damsel in distress. If Jules is too drunk to walk, or she accidentally sends a malicious email to her mother, or if she’s not assertive enough to instruct an assistant to tidy up a ridiculously cluttered office table–Ben is always ready to step in and save her, like a charmingly protective grandfather.
Although this sexist narrative is a little disappointing in the 21st century, it’s certainly nothing new. Director Meyers could have improved the plot massively by choosing to focus more on the generational divide between Ben and Jules, and the purpose of their friendship, because they clearly needed each other. Despite the burden of a messy plot, the acting of Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro was superb, and will leave audiences smiling, with just a twitch of confusion in their grins.