| The Intern | |
| Director: | Nancy Meyers |
| Cinematography: | Stephen Goldblatt |
| Editing: | Robert Leighton |
| Music: | Theodore Shapiro |
| Distributor: | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Runtime: | 121 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $35 million[1] |
| Gross: | $194.6 million[2] |
The Intern is a 2015 American comedy-drama film directed, written, and produced by Nancy Meyers. The film stars Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, and Rene Russo, with supporting performances from Anders Holm, Andrew Rannells, Adam DeVine, and Zack Pearlman. The plot follows a 70-year-old widower who becomes a senior intern at a fashion website, where he forms an unlikely friendship with the company's workaholic CEO.
The film was released on September 25, 2015, by Warner Bros. It received mixed reviews from critics but was a box office success, grossing $195 million worldwide against a $35 million production budget.
70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker, a retired executive from DEX One, finds himself bored with retirement. He applies to fill the newly conceived position of senior intern at About The Fit, a fast-growing e-commerce fashion startup in Brooklyn.
Ben impresses everyone and is one of five senior interns hired. He is assigned to work with CEO Jules Ostin, who is somewhat skeptical at first and ignores him. However, Ben wins over his co-workers with his congeniality and his helpful advice on life and work.
One morning, Ben organizes a messy desk Jules complained about, winning her good graces. After work, he notices Jules's chauffeur drinking, persuades him to leave and drives Jules home himself, a role he will continue to fill in the coming days.
On their first drive together, Ben asks Jules several personal questions, and she asks her VP, Cameron, to reassign him. However, that evening, they bond when Jules discovers that he worked for almost 40 years in the same building which About The Fit now occupies. The next morning, Jules learns that Cameron had replaced Ben as driver with Doris, a terrible driver who nearly crashes. Jules apologizes and begs Ben to come back, and he does.
Jules starts assigning him work, and he is able to help lighten her workload. Ben also begins a relationship with About The Fit's in-house masseuse, Fiona. When Jules accidentally sends a scathing email about her mother to her mother, Ben volunteers to take some co-workers to break into her mother's house to delete it from her computer. They narrowly avoid getting caught by the police in the process.
Ben also becomes acquainted with Jules's family. Her husband, Matt, gave up his own career to be a stay-at-home dad to their daughter, Paige, when About The Fit started to take off. However, the marriage is slowly breaking apart as the couple grows more distant. When driving Paige home from a party, Ben discovers that Matt is having an affair.
Meanwhile, Jules is under pressure to give up her post as CEO to someone outside of the company, as her investors fear she is unable to cope with the unanticipatedly high workload. Believing it will give her more time at home with her family, Jules is willing to consider the proposal.
She asks Ben to accompany her on a business trip to San Francisco to interview a potential CEO candidate. While there, Jules reveals that she knows about Matt's infidelity, but has not confronted him about it because she was not ready to deal with it.
To buy herself time to save her marriage, Jules decides to hire the prospective CEO, while Ben greatly encourages her to think about how much effort and passion she has used to build About The Fit. Matt unexpectedly drops in at the office and urges her to reconsider, saying that he is sorry and ashamed, and wants to support her in her dreams.
Jules goes out looking for Ben, wanting to tell him that she has changed her mind, and finds him enjoying his tai chi exercise group. She finally lets herself relax and joins him in practicing tai chi.
Originally set up at Paramount Pictures, The Intern was planned to feature Tina Fey and Michael Caine in the lead roles.[3] Handed over to Warner Bros., Fey was replaced by Reese Witherspoon as the attached star, though Witherspoon left the film on January 15, 2014, due to scheduling conflicts.[4] On February 7, 2014, Anne Hathaway was in final talks to replace Witherspoon in the lead role.[5] Stephen Goldblatt was set as director of photography.[6] On June 23, 2014, Zack Pearlman joined the cast of the film.[7]
Principal photography began on June 23, 2014, in Brooklyn, New York City,[8] where De Niro was spotted on the set of the film.[9] On October 2, 2014, director Nancy Meyers announced that filming was completed.[10]
The Intern grossed $75.7 million in North America and $118.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $194.6 million, against a net production budget of $35 million. The film opened alongside Hotel Transylvania 2 and was projected to gross $15–20 million in its opening weekend. It grossed $17.7 million, finishing second at the box office behind Hotel Transylvania 2 ($48.5 million).[11]
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half out of four stars, stating, "With some genuinely insightful dialogue, a number of truly funny bits of physical business, and small scenes allowing us to get to know and like a half-dozen supporting players,"[12]
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that the film was similar to Meyers's other works, stating that it was "frothy, playful, homogeneous, routinely maddening and generally pretty irresistible." Despite criticizing Meyers's screenplay and "conflicted ideas about powerful women," Dargis praised the casting of De Niro, stating he "owns the movie from the moment he opens his mouth." Hathaway's role was derided as "less of a character and more of a fast-walking, speed-talking collection of gender grievances."[13]
Clem Bastow, writing for The Guardian, suggested that poor reviews for the film were primarily coming from men, who form the overwhelming majority of film critics.[14] Bastow further suggested that female critics would "feel the need to go hard on certain films for women" such as The Intern.[15]
Director Quentin Tarantino viewed the film as Oscar-worthy, stating:
| Year | Award | Category | Recipients | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | AARP Movies for Grownups Awards | Best Comedy | The Intern | ||
| Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actor in a Comedy | Robert De Niro | |||
| Critics' Choice Movie Awards | Best Actor in a Comedy | Robert De Niro | [16] | ||
| Casting - Big Budget Feature - Comedy | The Intern | [17] | |||
| Jupiter Award, Germany | Best International Actor | ||||
| Best International Actress | |||||
| Max Movie Awards, South Korea | Best Actress | ||||
| Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie: Comedy | [18] | |||
| Choice Movie Actress: Comedy | Anne Hathaway | ||||
Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone announced on January 27, 2020, that she will produce the Hindi remake of The Intern, also playing the female lead role, but the remake's production was postponed mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[19] Rishi Kapoor was initially cast as the male lead, but after his sudden death in April 2020 due to leukemia, he was replaced by Amitabh Bachchan in March 2021. Principal photography began in November 2021.[20]
On July 5, 2022, the first episode of the Japanese television remake of The Intern,[21] called Unicorn ni Notte or Riding a Unicorn, released its first episode with Hidetoshi Nishijima in the De Niro role and Mei Nagano in the Hathaway role.[22]
Jack Nguyen and his newly-established Joat Films unveiled that he and Warner Bros. will co-produce the upcoming Korean adaptation of The Intern.[23]