Warner Bros.In an unguarded moment late in The Intern, the main character protests, “How in one generation have men gone from guys like Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford to . . . ?” and vaguely gestures at a group of frumpily dressed 20-something men.
There’s no good answer to this lament, or at least, not one that would go over well with the 20-something generation in question. But the fact remains that men and women today look and behave very differently than their counterparts just a generation ago, and no one seems sure about whether or not this is a good thing.
The Intern sets up this dilemma only to scrap it completely. The film gently, without judgment, and with lots of humor dissects gender roles and how they’ve changed in the past 50 years, presenting cultural contrasts for contemporary manhood and womanhood that both reveal their failures and affirm their successes.
Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) is a 70-year-old retiree with too much time on his hands. He’s tried keeping busy with a hilariously long list of random activities, but none provided him with the same sense of purpose that a regular job once did. He has just enough charming kookiness to leap at a nontraditional opportunity: an internship for senior citizens at an online fashion store, About The Fit. As he says in his filmed cover letter, “I’ve still got music in me.”
After a series of interviews with increasingly youthful employees, Ben gets the job and is assigned to the company founder and C.E.O., Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). Jules is personable and well-liked in the company, but she obsessively over-works herself to keep things running exactly how she wants them. The strain is beginning to show: the company is barely coping with its increasingly complex logistics, and there’s growing tension in Jules’ marriage. About The Fit’s board opts to have Jules find and hire a new C.E.O., a compromise she grudgingly agrees to, but she puts her foot down when Ben comes on as her personal assistant.
Undaunted by a stubborn, self-sufficient boss and a tech-heavy environment, Ben enthusiastically throws himself into his new job. He’s usually up before his two alarms can wake him and doesn’t leave until the boss does. When it becomes clear that Jules plans on resolutely ignoring him, Ben pursues other tasks around the office, providing sage business advice to younger employees and getting How To Technology 101 lessons in return.
Ben takes a posse of 20-something men in particular under his wing, offering old-school thoughts on relationships, responsibility, and professionalism. Both sides are wide-eyed with wonder at each other initially. Ben is amazed at the success such a young group has already cultivated despite their still-childish mannerisms; the 20-somethings marvel at Ben like he’s a tintype photograph come to life. Slowly Ben finds his niche as a calming, supportive presence, especially for Jules, who realizes she can also utilize his 40+ years of management experience to patch up a few holes in the company.
Warner Bros.The Intern would still be a funny, feel-good family film if it stopped with “Old people and young people learn things from each other and are nice,” but it goes quite a few extra miles to take advantage of its stellar cast. De Niro and Hathaway both give fantastic performances, due in large part to precisely written dialogue that carefully unwinds the touchy topic of gender roles.
The main comparison of masculinity across generations is Ben and Jules’ husband, Matt (Anders Holm), who’s a stay-at-home dad. The differences between them are set up primarily through appearances. Ben stands as a bastion of old school style: he shows up to work in an impeccable suit and tie every day, earns admiring coos from Brooklyn hipsters for his actually vintage briefcase, and shocks a group of scruffy young men by describing his daily shaving routine.
Matt’s appearance, on the other hand, has been carefully arranged to emphasize an odd middle ground between teen and adult: his deep voice and gentle paternal authority with his and Jules’ daughter are contrasted by his unkempt hair, half-hearted beard, and clunky glasses that make him look like he’s barely out of high school. It’s a subtle embodiment of the identity crisis Matt has as he struggles to reconcile his perception of correct masculinity with the role he plays in his family.
Jules experiences her own identity crisis around her role in their family as the working parent. She’s very aware that her life is perceived as abnormal for a woman – the mothers of her daughter’s classmates make that passive-aggressively clear. Jules scoffs, “It’s 2015, seriously!” but she’s still bothered by the judgment. She wrestles with feeling guilty for working and fear that her job threatens her marriage. But she truly believes in what she has to offer as a woman leading in business.
Enter Ben as the film’s unexpected voice of reason. His character, literal manifestation of the Nicholson, Ford, and De Niro generation that he is, could have stood for the preservation of traditional gender roles, for the idea of getting men and women back to how they were in the good old days. Instead, he represents the transition from one generation to the next. He acknowledges Jules’ dilemma, affirms her desire to work hard for the company she built, and encourages her in her roles as wife and mother. Though he never directly confronts Matt about his insecurity in his masculinity, he does gently prompt him to do the truly manly, moral thing.
Warner Bros.The film doesn’t assert that modern gender roles are better or worse than old ones, or vice versa. It quietly posits that they are harder to navigate now that some of the stricter distinctions have been broken down. It sympathizes with Jules and Matt as they juggle the knowledge that their roles are nontraditional with their faith that what they’re doing is right.
Ultimately The Intern affirms that there are more important elements to being feminine and masculine than what you wear or the job you have, and that being manly or womanly doesn’t have to result from antagonism. The film celebrates how the genders can build each other up and encourage the best in each other.
Caveat Spectator
There are a few scattered curse words, including some that we see written. Characters are shown drinking and then subsequently drunk. One character gives another the finger. There are a few sexually suggestive scenes in which nothing is actually happening or said but the implications are clear. A character cheats on their spouse and is caught kissing a person who is not their spouse. Ben attends a few funerals and has an emotional conversation with Jules about dying and being buried.
Jessica Gibson is a former intern with Christianity Today Movies and a student at The King’s College in New York City. She tweets only to fangirl and gripe @GibbyTOD.
