'The Intern' review, starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway

Nancy Meyers’ good graces cannot be denied. In everything she does, her gentle touch is distinctly, constantly felt and she gives the people exactly what they ordered — with a few extra, unasked-for sweeteners to boot. And though old-fashioned, there’s genuineness to her sincerity. Her aim is solely to please and she mightily makes sure everyone leaves in good spirits. If only she could make something more engaging with her newest, The Intern.

Forging through retirement, Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) is pleasantly miserable. 70 and widowed, he longs for the rhythm found in the office, specifically from the telephone book company where he worked for over 40 years. An artist, he says, doesn’t retire until the music inside them stops and his chorus isn’t done singing. He wants a sense of purpose he could idealize at every moment again. He’s got all the drive, but — beyond some yoga classes in the park — nowhere to go. Ben desperately yearns for an outlet. Something to motivate waking up in the morning. Sure enough, an opportunity beckons.

On a stroll for groceries, he stumbles upon a flyer for a Senior Citizen Internship Program at a rising online fashion site, run by founder Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). Though his grandchildren only marginally connect him to the digital age, Ben’s eagerness isn’t phased. He’s quick to win over Jules’ staff and earn friends in the process — including Jason (Adam Devine) and fellow intern Davis (Zack Pearlman) — and, in doing so, gets assigned as Jules’ personal intern. She's not as easily bowled over, but his considerate behavior promptly takes her notice. His problem-solving successfully levitates their optimal outreach and as Jules struggles to coordinate her personal life and her business one, Ben’s hard-working attitude and later, adage insight grow into firmer assets.

A baby-boomer dramedy also meant to appease some high-end thirty-somethings, The Intern is pure, saturated fluff — nothing more or less. Much like Ben himself, it’s sweet natured, well humored, nicely groomed, but entirely bland. Flavorless by design, the workplace comedy relies too readily on the cast’s charm — also including Rene Russo as De Niro’s masseuse love interest — without offering much to get invested in or want to see through. Removed are any stakes. Everything’s too clean and carefully considered, just like the fine housing complexities Meyers can always find. All it provides is little more than ample time to see these backdrops on display, as Meyers makes a convincing case for how a comfort food movie can be too comfortable for its own good.

For as irksomely schmaltzy and gooey as all of this can be, though, there’s a refreshing geniality to Ben from De Niro and that nearly lets Meyers’ feature float. Resisting any careless mugging expected from his later work, the actor gracefully channels the humble sweetness needed to have Ben enamor us. He adds resonance where there wasn’t much before and while it can be accounted for him being given more room to push himself, there’s something to be gleamed in how much humanity bursts through his weightless character. As he comments, he’s essentially just the office uncle by-a-point, one who makes sure everyone’s hopes materialize and troubles disappear. But De Niro’s unexpected levity almost holds it all together.

He becomes little more than a super miracle worker, mostly for Jules, yet it’s one of the better performances he's given these past something years. And Hathaway only equals his attentiveness and compassion throughout. She certainly knows how to bring down the waterworks too. When Meyers clears the air and just lets them care for one another, they strike a nice rapport. Even if their friendship is often too cutesy, there’s a nice dynamic to it. The leads sell it well and the little moments quietly add up. Only around this middle part does The Intern start to work. A nice pleasantry is in its air that's easy to be charmed by, but it only goes sour when Meyers ponies in a stale dramatic subplot to close her latest revolving around Jules' husband Matt (Anders Holm).

As infuriating as it could be to see the potential quickly squandered, it’s hard to get mad at something with such low ambitions. Then again, we know Meyers can — and has — done better than this. Unfairly labeled the poor-woman’s Nora Ephron, there's an aptness to the description this time. She’s proven herself capable of making more compelling characters with her delicate pen, but The Intern comes across like the woman behind Something Gotta Give mostly going through the motions, all without much in mind for a payoff. Plush, divinely accessorized and entirely non-intrusive, Meyers champions the goodness in the human spirit like few others. And there’s nothing wrong with her good-heartedness; it just doesn’t make an interesting movie, that’s all. In order to get credit for your work, you need to contribute something worth getting compensated and, with her sixth feature, Meyers doesn’t have what it takes to make her application stand out.