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Intern, The
Warner Bros. // PG-13 // January 19, 2016
List Price: $35.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Film:
Several years ago, writer/director Nancy Meyers fell into a niche by depicting the emotional complications of the lives of highly successful people: an advertising exec magically gets in touch with his feminine side; a movie-trailer editor swaps her mansion for a quaint English cottage to forget about her unfaithful boyfriend; a divorced couple, a wealthy attorney and ritzy bakery owner, reignite a love affair that's interrupted by a charming architect. Prosperity affords these people plenty of freedom to dedicate their attention to more appealing dramatic pursuits, turning the films' attention to lofty ideas about gender awareness, middle-aged perception, and emotional cleansing through a change in surroundings. Meyers' latest, The Intern, again puts her characters in positions of relative comfort -- a meteoric dot-com exec; a retired corporate VP who needs a break from his routine of vacations, tai-chi, and New York shopping -- yet she explores their well-off places in life in pursuit of relevant, albeit saccharine drama that focuses on dedication to one's work and incorporating old-school savvy into new-school commerce.
After many years of retirement spent traveling the world, taking courses, and maintaining a daily routine reminiscent of his working life, widower Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) starts to feel the itch to do something else with his time. Spotting a flyer about a senior-aged internship with a local e-commerce startup, he decides to apply for the position and, with a little persuasiveness, nails the interviews. He discovers on his first day of work at About the Fit, a modern
clothing operation built from the ground up by Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway), that he's got a lot of ground to cover if he's going to catch up with modern business. Ostin runs a casual but energetic ship that keeps her at the office until late at night, proving to be a demanding position that pulls her away from her family, her daughter and stay-at-home husband, Matt (Anders Holm). Picking up on her issues, Ben finds ways of staying observant and helping the company -- and Jules personally -- wherever he can, often to the discomfort of the control-hungry businesswoman.
Nancy Meyers makes her intentions clear from the get-go, shining a light on Ben's enchantingly outdated behavior around the contemporary office while Jules cycles around conducting similar duties that he once conducted in his old job. A bubbly soundtrack carries the cooperative employees across the office's airy and sunny space, captured in bright and energetic cinematography assuring us that About the Fit will remain that kind of impossibly buoyant working environment found only in feel-good movies, both a feature and a flaw in The Intern. Lacking aggressive attitudes -- even Jules, despite employee chatter, is rather mellow -- or significant glitches that can't be fixed with a few clicks of the mouse or unearthed papers, the fluidity of these operations redirects the film's attention toward more personal and dramatically relevant matters: the boss' passion for the company, her waning work-life balance, and how Ben's equipped to help her out. That safe and composed tempo of the New York office, despite plenty of appealing performances that includes Rene Russo as the in-house massage therapist, feels more like a romanticized recruitment video for the fictional company than a robust space for developing characters, though.
Instead, The Intern centers on the delightful upward rapport between Ben, a fish-outta-water, and Jules, a capable businesswoman submerged by her responsibilities, and how the seasoned veteran takes the plunge and assists in keeping her afloat. Robert De Niro remains perfectly charming as the conservative intern, enriching his character's disconnect from the digital age -- his bewildered responses to video file extensions and creating a Facebook account are adorably droll -- with tranquil, sagely know-how spreading throughout the office that could feasibly turn the company
around overnight if desired by writer/director Meyers (his off-the-cuff analysis of a shipping cost problem sorta does that on a smaller scale). Anne Hathaway lends admirable smoothness to Jules, creating a chic and sympathetic entrepreneur whose time away from her family can be felt in each exhausted bedtime conversation with her husband. She's also stubborn about accepting help with her affairs, naturally, and that's where the chemistry between the two actors fits in: De Niro's optimistic accommodation as Ben makes the gradual breaking-down of Hathaway's cordially guarded barrier pleasant to watch unfold.
Where Nancy Meyers ultimately wants to go with her ideas gets complicated as Jules flips between complementing the devotion of her stay-at-home husband and calling for men to be "cool" like Mr. Whittaker: classic, dapper go-getters who wear suits and carry handkerchiefs. Light on growing conflict and even lighter on laughs, The Intern leans on the integrity of these mixed musings to push it to the end of its cheerful endeavors, while elaborating on Jules' need for upper-management help and how her family can stick together amid transitions in her business. Weightier developments late in the story run the risk of unraveling what Meyers works to accomplish with her progressive depiction of the family, but they're not weighty enough to overcome the heartening influence of our focal seventy-year-old intern, of course. With crowd-pleasing zest, The Intern makes certain to empower its focal characters while expressing what it does about dedicated working women and the value of senior citizens in the workforce.
The Blu-ray:
The Intern reports for its home-video appointment from Warner Bros. in a standard-two disc Blu-ray/DVD presentation, sporting simple black and silver artwork for both the discs. A delicate cardboard slipcase replicates the front and back artwork, expressing well what you're getting into with the film. A Digital HD slip has also been included.
Video and Audio:
Dressed to the nines, The Intern arrives in a 1.78:1-framed, 1080p AVC treatment that lucidly captures every dazzling look at the streets of New York, every polished shot of the About the Fit office, and every comforting glimpse at the characters' brownstone homes. Details in Ben's suits and design elements on computer screens are sharp and fitting, which carries over into the numerous crystal-clear close-ups upon both De Niro's mature features and Hathaway's delicate ones, displaying divine awareness of depth. Skin tones remain innately warm and welcoming no matter the location, allowing the redness of flushed moments to emerge naturally whenever applicable. The striking, yet balanced light of the office leaves zero opportunities for contrast to impose its darkness, yet neither does sequences in dimly-lit bedrooms or bars, keeping all details visible no matter the lighting situation. A few sequences appear relatively flat and digital when the depth-of-field fluctuates too much, but they're few and far between within this otherwise gratifying HD treatment.
As bright and bushy-tailed as the visuals, the sound that accompanies The Intern attends to the same duties as the cinematography: keeping an uplifting demeanor no matter the circumstances. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is up to the task, too, and it's all about balance, keeping the distinctively dram-com scoring energetic, present, yet not invasive upon the shuffle of office work or the little details of domestic duties. While a few insistent sound elements make their way into the track, from security alarms to slamming the brakes on a car, the fine details that appeal from the track are what make it pleasurable: the snap of briefcase locks, the thud of car doors, mouse-clicks and clanks of shotglasses. The dialogue remains at a comfortable place in the mid-range of the track, underscoring Robert De Niro's moderately-deep tenor and Anne Hathaway's alto registry while keeping all exchanges razor-sharp and free of distortion. English, French, and Spanish subtitles are available, along with French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks.
Special Features:
A trio of brief but pleasant extras accompany the Blu-ray for The Intern, starting off with Learning From Experience (4:46, 16x9 HD), available on both the Blu-ray and DVD. This piece quickly touches on working with Nancy Meyers in a film that explores both senior-citizen and youthful mindsets in a working environment, which is new ground for the director. Designs on Life (6:07, 16x9 HD) goes into the visual language of Meyers' films, elaborating on how the sets become their individual characters and how distinctive touches in both homes and the About the Fit office achieved their pronounced, tasteful New York personalities, along with the classy yet down-to-earth wardrobe selections. Finally, The Three Interns (5:46, 16x9 HD) features comedic actors Adam DeVine, Zack Pearlman, and Jason Orley gathered togetherfor a humorous discussion about their experience in working with Robert De Niro, rapping to Busta Rhymes, and the complications of sweating.
Final Thoughts:
Nancy Meyers delivers harmless dramatic enjoyment with a meaningful kick in The Intern, combining accomplished businesspeople of both the past and the present -- one retired and the other just getting started -- into an odd-couple team set on improving the personal and professional infrastructure of a dot-com startup. Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway are reliably charismatic in their respective roles: De Niro's a reserved and courteous sparkplug as widower intern Ben Whittaker, while Hathaway's a pleasantly approachable, yet durable entrepreneur as Jules Ostin, founder of a specialized clothing retailer. Themes of the importance of work and the complications of the work-life balance give Meyers' story a more universally relatable slant than some of her earlier pictures, though some of those ideas get their wires crossed within an equally ambitious and clashing blend of dramatic endeavors focused on Jules' modern domestic life. The positive impact that Ben has on the office and on Jules' life makes for a pleasant watching experience, though, justifying its insistently amiable tone. Warner Bros' Blu-ray looks and sounds terrific, and the fifteen minutes of extras are decent enough. Recommended.
Thomas Spurlin, Staff Reviewer -- DVDTalk Reviews | Personal Blog/Site
 |
Several years ago, writer/director Nancy Meyers fell into a niche by depicting the emotional complications of the lives of highly successful people: an advertising exec magically gets in touch with his feminine side; a movie-trailer editor swaps her mansion for a quaint English cottage to forget about her unfaithful boyfriend; a divorced couple, a wealthy attorney and ritzy bakery owner, reignite a love affair that's interrupted by a charming architect. Prosperity affords these people plenty of freedom to dedicate their attention to more appealing dramatic pursuits, turning the films' attention to lofty ideas about gender awareness, middle-aged perception, and emotional cleansing through a change in surroundings. Meyers' latest, The Intern, again puts her characters in positions of relative comfort -- a meteoric dot-com exec; a retired corporate VP who needs a break from his routine of vacations, tai-chi, and New York shopping -- yet she explores their well-off places in life in pursuit of relevant, albeit saccharine drama that focuses on dedication to one's work and incorporating old-school savvy into new-school commerce.
After many years of retirement spent traveling the world, taking courses, and maintaining a daily routine reminiscent of his working life, widower Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) starts to feel the itch to do something else with his time. Spotting a flyer about a senior-aged internship with a local e-commerce startup, he decides to apply for the position and, with a little persuasiveness, nails the interviews. He discovers on his first day of work at About the Fit, a modern
clothing operation built from the ground up by Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway), that he's got a lot of ground to cover if he's going to catch up with modern business. Ostin runs a casual but energetic ship that keeps her at the office until late at night, proving to be a demanding position that pulls her away from her family, her daughter and stay-at-home husband, Matt (Anders Holm). Picking up on her issues, Ben finds ways of staying observant and helping the company -- and Jules personally -- wherever he can, often to the discomfort of the control-hungry businesswoman. Nancy Meyers makes her intentions clear from the get-go, shining a light on Ben's enchantingly outdated behavior around the contemporary office while Jules cycles around conducting similar duties that he once conducted in his old job. A bubbly soundtrack carries the cooperative employees across the office's airy and sunny space, captured in bright and energetic cinematography assuring us that About the Fit will remain that kind of impossibly buoyant working environment found only in feel-good movies, both a feature and a flaw in The Intern. Lacking aggressive attitudes -- even Jules, despite employee chatter, is rather mellow -- or significant glitches that can't be fixed with a few clicks of the mouse or unearthed papers, the fluidity of these operations redirects the film's attention toward more personal and dramatically relevant matters: the boss' passion for the company, her waning work-life balance, and how Ben's equipped to help her out. That safe and composed tempo of the New York office, despite plenty of appealing performances that includes Rene Russo as the in-house massage therapist, feels more like a romanticized recruitment video for the fictional company than a robust space for developing characters, though.
Instead, The Intern centers on the delightful upward rapport between Ben, a fish-outta-water, and Jules, a capable businesswoman submerged by her responsibilities, and how the seasoned veteran takes the plunge and assists in keeping her afloat. Robert De Niro remains perfectly charming as the conservative intern, enriching his character's disconnect from the digital age -- his bewildered responses to video file extensions and creating a Facebook account are adorably droll -- with tranquil, sagely know-how spreading throughout the office that could feasibly turn the company
around overnight if desired by writer/director Meyers (his off-the-cuff analysis of a shipping cost problem sorta does that on a smaller scale). Anne Hathaway lends admirable smoothness to Jules, creating a chic and sympathetic entrepreneur whose time away from her family can be felt in each exhausted bedtime conversation with her husband. She's also stubborn about accepting help with her affairs, naturally, and that's where the chemistry between the two actors fits in: De Niro's optimistic accommodation as Ben makes the gradual breaking-down of Hathaway's cordially guarded barrier pleasant to watch unfold. Where Nancy Meyers ultimately wants to go with her ideas gets complicated as Jules flips between complementing the devotion of her stay-at-home husband and calling for men to be "cool" like Mr. Whittaker: classic, dapper go-getters who wear suits and carry handkerchiefs. Light on growing conflict and even lighter on laughs, The Intern leans on the integrity of these mixed musings to push it to the end of its cheerful endeavors, while elaborating on Jules' need for upper-management help and how her family can stick together amid transitions in her business. Weightier developments late in the story run the risk of unraveling what Meyers works to accomplish with her progressive depiction of the family, but they're not weighty enough to overcome the heartening influence of our focal seventy-year-old intern, of course. With crowd-pleasing zest, The Intern makes certain to empower its focal characters while expressing what it does about dedicated working women and the value of senior citizens in the workforce.
The Blu-ray:
 |  |
The Intern reports for its home-video appointment from Warner Bros. in a standard-two disc Blu-ray/DVD presentation, sporting simple black and silver artwork for both the discs. A delicate cardboard slipcase replicates the front and back artwork, expressing well what you're getting into with the film. A Digital HD slip has also been included.
Video and Audio:
Dressed to the nines, The Intern arrives in a 1.78:1-framed, 1080p AVC treatment that lucidly captures every dazzling look at the streets of New York, every polished shot of the About the Fit office, and every comforting glimpse at the characters' brownstone homes. Details in Ben's suits and design elements on computer screens are sharp and fitting, which carries over into the numerous crystal-clear close-ups upon both De Niro's mature features and Hathaway's delicate ones, displaying divine awareness of depth. Skin tones remain innately warm and welcoming no matter the location, allowing the redness of flushed moments to emerge naturally whenever applicable. The striking, yet balanced light of the office leaves zero opportunities for contrast to impose its darkness, yet neither does sequences in dimly-lit bedrooms or bars, keeping all details visible no matter the lighting situation. A few sequences appear relatively flat and digital when the depth-of-field fluctuates too much, but they're few and far between within this otherwise gratifying HD treatment.
As bright and bushy-tailed as the visuals, the sound that accompanies The Intern attends to the same duties as the cinematography: keeping an uplifting demeanor no matter the circumstances. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is up to the task, too, and it's all about balance, keeping the distinctively dram-com scoring energetic, present, yet not invasive upon the shuffle of office work or the little details of domestic duties. While a few insistent sound elements make their way into the track, from security alarms to slamming the brakes on a car, the fine details that appeal from the track are what make it pleasurable: the snap of briefcase locks, the thud of car doors, mouse-clicks and clanks of shotglasses. The dialogue remains at a comfortable place in the mid-range of the track, underscoring Robert De Niro's moderately-deep tenor and Anne Hathaway's alto registry while keeping all exchanges razor-sharp and free of distortion. English, French, and Spanish subtitles are available, along with French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks.
Special Features:
A trio of brief but pleasant extras accompany the Blu-ray for The Intern, starting off with Learning From Experience (4:46, 16x9 HD), available on both the Blu-ray and DVD. This piece quickly touches on working with Nancy Meyers in a film that explores both senior-citizen and youthful mindsets in a working environment, which is new ground for the director. Designs on Life (6:07, 16x9 HD) goes into the visual language of Meyers' films, elaborating on how the sets become their individual characters and how distinctive touches in both homes and the About the Fit office achieved their pronounced, tasteful New York personalities, along with the classy yet down-to-earth wardrobe selections. Finally, The Three Interns (5:46, 16x9 HD) features comedic actors Adam DeVine, Zack Pearlman, and Jason Orley gathered togetherfor a humorous discussion about their experience in working with Robert De Niro, rapping to Busta Rhymes, and the complications of sweating.
Final Thoughts:
Nancy Meyers delivers harmless dramatic enjoyment with a meaningful kick in The Intern, combining accomplished businesspeople of both the past and the present -- one retired and the other just getting started -- into an odd-couple team set on improving the personal and professional infrastructure of a dot-com startup. Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway are reliably charismatic in their respective roles: De Niro's a reserved and courteous sparkplug as widower intern Ben Whittaker, while Hathaway's a pleasantly approachable, yet durable entrepreneur as Jules Ostin, founder of a specialized clothing retailer. Themes of the importance of work and the complications of the work-life balance give Meyers' story a more universally relatable slant than some of her earlier pictures, though some of those ideas get their wires crossed within an equally ambitious and clashing blend of dramatic endeavors focused on Jules' modern domestic life. The positive impact that Ben has on the office and on Jules' life makes for a pleasant watching experience, though, justifying its insistently amiable tone. Warner Bros' Blu-ray looks and sounds terrific, and the fifteen minutes of extras are decent enough. Recommended.
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