Review: THE INTERN

THE INTERN  (ROMANTIC-COMEDY) 
2.5 out of 4 stars 
Directed by Nancy Meyers
Starring: Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, Rene Russo, Anders Holm, JoJo Kushner, Andrew Rannells, Adam Devine, Zack Pearlman, Jason Orley, Christina Scherer, Nat Wolff
Rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and brief strong language.
121 minutes
Verdict: Nancy Meyer's first film in six years is par for the course a sugary sweet comedy-melodrama (not that there's anything wrong with that) and coasts on the charm of its cast and a few scattered laughs.
YOU MAY ENJOY THE INTERN IF YOU LIKED:
IT'S COMPLICATED  (2009)
SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE  (2003)
THE HOLIDAY  (2006)
THE INTERNSHIP  (2013)
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA  (2006)

THE INTERN, like most of writer/director Nancy Meyers's work is a nice "chick flick".  It feels like the movie is trying to dismiss the terminology of a chick flick, but for lack of a better term, it's what fits.  With a premise not too dissimilar from the dreadful 2013 alleged comedy THE INTERNSHIP, it drops an older individual with a lifetime of knowledge into the naive hipster world of online business, but it puts its premise to better use, and rather than trying desperately to be hip, THE INTERN is all too satisfied to feel surprisingly old-fashioned, just like its protagonist.
Robert De Niro is Ben Whittaker, a widowed septuagenarian who finds life as a retiree unsatisfying and lands an internship at an online fashion outlet where he bonds with his standoffish but brilliant boss Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway) and teaches a thing or two about professionalism and old-school chivalry to his Millennial co-workers.  It's very familiar, frothy comedy and melodrama that Meyers specializes in, but is well carried by her two leads who have a good father-daughter-style chemistry.  The story is slight, the strokes are broad, and as the chipper piano plays over Ben's first day on the new job, it feels as though for a moment that we've stumbled back into the '90s, but it's hard to complain about a movie that knows just what it's doing and for which audience.  There are a few laughs and the cast is likable, especially De Niro, but it's exactly the kind of movie you'd expect, for better or worse.