The clash between what audiences crave and what the suits think audiences crave is manifested in a halfway house that doesn't feel like one at all. The Intern is a slick, canny delivery of good sense and sweet sensibility, encased in a commercialised sugar shell. I don't suppose Nancy Meyers knows her film doesn't need it - the film's money-making, people-pleasing prospects would surely have been unfettered by relative creative freedom, since this is, after all, what audiences crave. Meyers the suit is, predictably, off course, tempering the otherwise good nature of her film with concessions to those who'd most likely rail against that nature, and her interpretation of ignorance in her characters settles into the screenplay too easily, and The Intern itself begins to court flagrant ignorance. It's thus up to the performers to eke out something relatable, and relatably compassionate, in their roles; leads Robert de Niro and Anne Hathaway are certainly up to this task. Hathaway has the more difficult role as the more difficult person, and succeeds wholly, rightly recognising that her difficulties are intrinsic elements to her persona, and Meyers does her best work here quietly but pointedly placing the blame on societal attitudes toward gender roles. It's a progressive film at heart, when Meyers gets around to it, though only politically - The Intern is far too conservative a creative proposition to properly bring these ideas to form and then to flourish.
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