“The Intern” shows heartwarming simplicity, worth a watch

For the fans who have watched Anne Hathaway go from gawky teen to intern to Catwoman in films like “The Princess Diaries” and “The Devil Wears Prada,” her newest film will be a change of pace.

In “The Intern,” Hathaway plays Jules Ostin, the boss of her own high-tech start-up called About the Fit.

The movie begins with an introduction to the frantic pace of Ostin’s day-to-day schedule as she attempts to be genuine and accommodating to employees and customers alike.

Ostin seems overwhelmed. She’s late for every meeting, and the company’s investors worry that the workload may be too much for her. They suggest that she bring in a CEO to help manage the company.

Around this same time, 70-year-old Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) comes onto the scene. Whittaker made his living in marketing and managing the production of telephone books for over 40 years, but has since retired and become a widow. He has traveled and enjoyed his time away from work, but when he notices a flier advertising a “Senior Intern” program, he takes a chance. His personality and experience win him the job, and soon he is assigned to be a personal intern for the overworked Ostin.

The dynamics of this duo, along with a side-plot involving a set of younger guys at About the Fit, are simply funny. “The Intern” is full of good-hearted jabs at millennials as well as at the older crowd, but it seems to highlight most the ways in which tradition and change can work together.

In any case, Ostin and Whittaker balance each other out. Whittaker finds ways to integrate his old-school experience into this e-commerce company, and Ostin learns to trust someone else with her ever-growing creation.

But everything isn’t that cut and dry. When the search for a CEO gets serious, Ostin has to decide whether or not relinquishing her control is what’s best for the company. And when Whittaker finds out something that could destroy Ostin’s life away from work, he has to figure out a way to break the news to a boss who has now become a friend.

“The Intern” is a solid, simple movie. The unconventional friendship was a funny one, and though this movie may have been geared towards more of an older crowd, I walked out of the theatre with a valuable reminder. It doesn’t matter sometimes how much the world around you changes. Stick to your gut, and in the end, everything will end up all right.