"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Thursday, September 5, 2019

The Book of Rannells: The Intern (2015, PG-13)


I guess you’d classify this movie as a dramedy, though it feels weird to call it even that.  It’s not hugely dramatic or comedic, keeping more to the middle of the road, but it’s not a bad movie by any means.  More than anything, I’d call it pleasant, a charming little film with fairly likable characters and a mild plot.

Ben, a widowed retiree, is at loose ends trying to fill his days.  He feels a bit lonely, and a bit aimless, until he learns of an e-commerce fashion site looking for “senior interns.”  Back in the game, Ben sets himself to the task of keeping up with the technological learning curve and navigating the ways of the millennials working at the successful set-up.  He’s assigned to work directly with Jules, the company’s highly-dedicated but perpetually snowed-under founder, and despite Jules’s initial resistance to having him around, they begin to form an important bond both in and out of the office.

The plot is pretty insubstantial and meanders a lot, but it doesn’t really feel lacking, in part because the individual scenes are very well-made and in part because of the strength of the character work.  Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway both do well in the lead roles – De Niro’s Ben is affable, dignified, and wise without feeling overly cliché, and while Hathaway’s Jules can be a little distant and hyper-focused on her work, it’s clear how much love she has for what she does, and she does warm up in her own slightly-awkward way.  Their (100% platonic) work chemistry is really nice, and they’re enjoyable to watch even when it doesn’t feel like a whole lot of actual story is going on.

Andrew Rannells plays Cameron, Jules’s number 2.  He seems to handle more of the interpersonal/employee management part of the business – the whole “senior intern” program is his initiative, and throughout the film, he bridges some of that gap between Jules and the employees (pointedly thanking Ben when Jules forgets, for example.)  He also propels one of the main threads of the plot:  the board wants to install a CEO above Jules, and Cameron is the one who gives her this news, attempts to smooth it over, and keeps on her about at least considering prospective CEOs.

Cameron is pretty nice, something of a peacemaker, and ultimately not that interesting.  It’s not about him being nice, though – I love me some Herbert Pocket, and Cap is my favorite Avenger.  It’s about what the film does with him, which is next to nothing.  While all the other characters have pretty well-defined personalities (even if, with some of the supporting characters, they’re quite broad,) Cameron is just kind of blandly there.  So, despite a decent amount of screentime for Rannells, he doesn’t get to do much with it, as Cameron feels more like a function of the plot than a character in his own right.

Recommend?

In General – Maybe.  It’s a fluffy but very pleasant film.

Andrew Rannells – Eh, not really.  This role doesn’t put Rannells’s talents to much use.

Warnings

Language, brief sexual content, drinking, and thematic elements.

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