Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Intern Blu-ray Movie Review

Vintage Wear

Reviewed by Michael Reuben January 18, 2016

Nancy Meyers makes Hollywood fantasies, which puts her in a venerable tradition dating back to the early days of the movie business. Classic comedies of the studio system, the kind that Woody Allen parodied in The Purple Rose of Cairo, were routinely set in beautifully designed rooms inhabited by characters whose lives were glossier, prettier and, after the requisite conflicts, happier than most of ours. A key ingredient in the mix were those rarefied creatures known as "movie stars", who were among the most valuable properties of the old studio system. The effort and expense expended to create and maintain "stars" were legendary.

The star system may be gone, and time and technology have given "fantasy" a different connotation (usually something involving science fiction, graphic novels or Middle Earth), but a few practitioners of the old-school formula remain. Meyers is one of them, and she does it well enough to succeed repeatedly with audiences, even as her particular brand of fantasy has become passé with the critical establishment. One secret to Meyers' success is her ability to attract and showcase established names who can sell tickets—the closest thing to a movie star these days—by inserting them into roles that subvert their familiar personas.

Beginning with What Women Want in 2000, Meyers made a string of romantic comedies, each of which put familiar faces into unfamiliar situations. What Women Want turned action star Mel Gibson into a sensitive guy who could be bossed around by Helen Hunt. Something's Gotta Give steered ladies man Jack Nicholson into monogamy with the help of an Oscar-nominated Diane Keaton (and a timely heart attack). The Holiday gave Jack Black—Jack Black!—a makeover into a romantic lead who could be a suitable match for Kate Winslet, a feat made even more remarkable because Black had to share the screen with Jude Law. It's Complicated turned a 60-year-old Meryl Streep into a sexual dynamo hotly pursued by both Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

The Intern is Meyers' latest box office success, and it represents a new departure in her work. The film contains romantic elements, but its primary subject is friendship, specifically friendship across generations. Once again, Meyers has placed an icon in a role that cuts against his usual image, casting the intense and intimidating Robert De Niro as a gentle company man who gets along with everyone. Surrounding him with a mostly youthful cast led by Anne Hathaway, Meyers draws from De Niro his most nuanced work in years as a self-described emotional "big bowl of mush"—which is not a phrase that leaps to mind for the actor known for such intensely adversarial characters as Travis Bickle, Jake La Motta and the comically paranoid Jack Byrnes from the Fockers trilogy.

Bored with retirement, 70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker (De Niro) obtains an intership with a successful internet startup called About the Fit. ATF, as its employees call it, was founded and run by Jules Ostin (Hathaway) from her kitchen table, but it now has over 200 employees and is struggling to catch up with its own success. To ease the burden on Jules, who still wants to oversee every aspect of ATF personally, her shrewd chief operating officer, Cameron (Andrew Rannells), assigns Ben to be her personal helper, despite her objections.

Even as Jules remains standoffish, Ben finds himself becoming "everybody's uncle" (in his own phrase) to a group of 20-something millennials who are still figuring out who they are and what life is about. The buttoned-down habits born of a forty-year office career serve as an example to the younger men, winning Ben a trio of loyal followers, Davis (Zack Pearlman), Jason (Adam DeVine) and Lewis (Jason Orley), who seek his aid and counsel on everything from office attire to dating. Ben's ability to get along with just about anyone, a habit acquired from a career in sales and manufacturing, wins over even Becky (Christina Scherer), Jules's perpetually overwrought assistant. Eventually, Jules herself comes around, discovering in Ben a valuable friend and confidant, as she struggles to manage the demands of sudden success.

All of this plays out in elegant, idealized settings suitable for Architectural Digest. The spacious offices of ATF in a converted Brooklyn factory gleam with freshly painted white walls, clean lines and steel-and-glass decor. (The glaring exception is a "junk table" where employees toss random objects they want off their desk and which serves as a minor plot point.) Jules and her stay-at-home husband (Anders Holm) and adorable daughter (JoJo Kushner) inhabit a newly renovated Brooklyn brownstone with a fabulous designer kitchen and none of the clutter one expects from a hectic family life. (When Ben visits, Jules's husband warns him about "Legos everywhere, so watch your step", but there isn't a Lego to be seen.) De Niro's Ben lives in an equally attractive brownstone filled with memories of his late wife and featuring a closet that's the male equivalent of Carrie Bradshaw's; he seems to have kept every tie, suit, shirt and handkerchief he ever acquired, and they all look like store displays. Even the vehicles in which Jules rushes around town, perpetually behind schedule, are spic-and-span, brand new and devoid of papers, coffee cups or other trash.

Against this visually soothing backdrop, Meyers deploys a gentle comedy of cross-generational intrigue, as De Niro's Ben becomes the calm at the center of the emotional hurricanes swirling around him. Exploiting the actor's often misused ability to underplay, she has him attentively observe the antics of his young co-workers, confining his reactions to tiny flickers of the face, minute adjustments of posture and the occasional hint of sarcasm in his voice. (Watch, for example, the scene in which Ben confronts Jules's driver about his drinking; De Niro does almost nothing, but he conveys Ben's resolve unmistakably.) Ironically, it is Ben's very restraint that eventually wins over Jules, because he is the only person in her life who isn't importuning her with demands on her time and energy.

Much of The Intern is concerned with the personal and professional challenges created for Jules by the instant success of ATF. Her investors want her to hire an outside CEO; her family life has suffered as she works 24/7; and her mother (Mary Kay Place) is a constant source of discouragement (which leads to an amusing caper involving a misaddressed email). But the film's comic energy, and its occasional dips into sentiment, all derive from the yin and yang of Ben's settled assurance vs. the hyperkinetic emotionalism of Jules and her contemporaries. "Everybody loves him", Cameron observes, and it's true. Of course, once one steps outside the manicured environs in which The Intern exists, it's obvious that Ben is as idealized as the rest of Meyers' creation. (Lest there be any doubt that he's really a fairy godfather, the eventual revelation of his own employment history confirms it.) Only a star of De Niro's caliber, bearing the weight of his impressive career, could give Ben such a credible presence that one barely notices how impossibly perfect he really is.

Meyers is even clever enough to include one character who ends up dissenting from Ben's fan club. Appropriately enough, she's a lady of similar age named Patty (Linda Lavin), who has been offering herself romantically to the dapper widower for months, without much success. When Ben ends up dating ATF's in-house masseuse, Fiona (a lascivious Rene Russo), Patty's scorn is withering. Lavin, TV's former Alice, appears in only two scenes, but she steals them both, and De Niro wisely lets her have them.

The Intern Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Intern was shot digitally on the Arri Alexa by cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt (The Help and Get On Up). Post-production was completed on a digital intermediate, from which Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably sourced by a direct digital path. Goldblatt's lighting complements Meyers' prettified world, showcasing the meticulous set design, the expressive costumes and, above all, the actors' faces to best advantage. The Blu-ray image is sharply detailed and brightly colorful, making Brooklyn look its best both indoors and out. Blacks are solid, contrast is pleasing, and the colors are richly saturated without over-emphasis. No anomalies, noise or other artifacts appeared.

The division of Warner Home Video that handles new releases seems to be lagging behind the catalog division and Warner Archive Collection, because The Intern has been mastered with a bitrate of only 22.11 Mbps, even though over 15 gigabytes of space remain unused on the BD-50. Compression issues were not evident, but obviously there are still some corners of the Warner organization where the message about maximizing bitrate has yet to penetrate.

The Intern Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Intern features a low-key but effective 5.1 soundtrack, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA. The mix provides a nice sense of immersion in the headquarters of ATF, where the steady hum of activity and the sound of chiming iPhones is everywhere. Occasionally there's a loud enough moment to display the track's dynamic range (a memorable one involves Busta Rhymes "Break Ya Neck" at high volume), but otherwise the mix is restrained. Dialogue is clear throughout, and the gently reassuring score by Theodore Shapiro (Tropic Thunder) is complemented by well-chosen pop selections ranging from "Boogie Shoes" to "The Girl from Ipanema".

The Intern Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Warner has provided only a meager selection of extras.

• Learning from Experience (1080p; 1.85:1; 4:46): Meyers and various cast members comment on the film's youthful characters and other story elements.



• Designs on Life (1080p; 1.85:1; 6:07): Set decorators Susan Bode and Beth Rubino, production designer Kristi Zea, costume designer Jacquelin Demetrio, various cast members and Meyers herself discuss the look of the film.



• The Three Interns (1080p; 1.85:1; 5:46): Zack Pearlman, Adam DeVine and Jason Orley tell stories about working with De Niro. Note that, despite this extra's title, only one of them plays an intern; the others play full-time employees.



• Introductory Trailers: At startup, the disc plays trailers for Pan and The Iron Giant: Signature Edition, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

The Intern Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Intern may not appeal to everyone, but it grossed $194 million worldwide on a production budget of $35 million, confirming yet again that an audience for Meyers' fairy tale style of comedy still exists. But fairy tales don't connect unless they contain an element of truth, and beneath the glossy surface of Meyers' work, there's always a real-life foundation that prevents the feel-good story from slipping into sentimentality. A paragon like Ben Whittaker may be impossible to find, but there are close enough equivalents in life, for those who bother to look up from their screens and pay attention. The Intern Blu-ray may be short on extras, but it's a solid presentation of an increasingly rare sort of filmmaking and therefore recommended.