The Intern was released on September 25, 2015, by Warner Bros. The film received mixed reviews from critics, though De Niro and Hathaway's performances were praised, and grossed $195 million worldwide against a $35 million production budget.
Plot
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 three 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 agonized 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, so she asks her VP Cameron to reassign him. However, that evening, they bond when she 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, begging Ben to come back, and he does.
Jules starts assigning Ben work, and he helps lighten her workload. He also begins a relationship with About The Fit's in-house massage therapist, Fiona. When Jules accidentally sends a scathing email about her mother to her, 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.
Jules 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]
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.[1] The film opened alongside Hotel Transylvania 2 and was projected to gross $15–20 million in its opening weekend.[11] It grossed $17.7 million, finishing second at the box office behind Hotel Transylvania 2 ($48.5 million).[11]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 60% of 201 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "The Intern doesn't do enough with its timely premise, but benefits from the unorthodox chemistry of its talented leads."[12]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 51 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[13]
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,"[14]
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."[15]
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.[16] Bastow further suggested that female critics would "feel the need to go hard on certain films for women" such as The Intern.[17]
It does seem to be to some degree there's a boom or bust aspect when it comes to Hollywood when it comes to female directors. There becomes an era when there's a lot working then that settles down and there's a dry period—but frankly, maybe I'm just talking shit because the thing is there are female directors. Maybe they're not being the ones that are being asked to be on The Hollywood Reporter roundtable. One of my favorite movies this last year was Nancy Meyers' The Intern. They're not considering that for the Oscars even though I think Robert De Niro gave one of the best performances this year in that movie. I thought the script was actually one of her best. Right up there with It's Complicated. They're not asking her to be part of the discussion.[18]
On January 27, 2020, Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone announced 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.[22]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.[23]
On July 5, 2022, the first episode of the Japanese television remake of The Intern,[24] called Unicorn ni Notte or Riding a Unicorn, was released. It features Hidetoshi Nishijima in the De Niro role and Mei Nagano in the Hathaway role.[25]
Jack Nguyen and his newly-established Joat Films announced that he and Warner Bros. will co-produce the upcoming Korean adaptation of The Intern.[26]
