Beige & Slate Blue: Nancy Myer's "The Intern"
Monday, September 28, 2015 at 5:47PM 
Kyle Stevens, author of Mike Nichols: Sex, Language and the Reinvention of Psychological Realism is here to review Anne Hathaway's latest.
The Intern follows 70-year-old and retired Ben, played by Robert de Niro (who has never seemed more like a Bobby). Having enjoyed a happy and prosperous life, Ben now finds himself so uninspired by endless leisure activities that he decides he deserves another go on the merry-go-round. He lands the film’s titular position at a women’s clothing startup created and run by Anne Hathaway’s Jules, who, we are told, is a difficult woman to work for despite all evidence to the contrary. Ben and Jules become friends, as Jules realizes that even an old be-suited, briefcased, handkerchief carrying man—the icon of conservative, 1950s patriarchy—may have worth. Disturbing as this is, especially at first, The Intern gives us a real man-woman friendship—that rarest of on-screen sights, even if it is here rendered “safe” by Ben’s age.
De Niro and Hathaway shine, particularly in a hotel scene that gives them time to plumb the depth of writer and director Nancy Meyers’ characters. Meyers is one of our best character writers, but The Intern’s frenzied workplace setting doesn’t afford us time to fall in love with her creations as we did in, say, Something’s Gotta Give (2003), where Meyers simply put the camera in front of Diane Keaton and let her go. [more...]
That said, the film plays to Meyers’ fans. Like Something’s Gotta Give, it features a stony, male character anxious about his age and heart health and a flinty, ambitious female. As in The Holiday (2006), there is an attempt to recuperate old vocabulary from a supposedly more genteel era. And, of course, there is a lot of beige and slate blue. And I mean a lot.
However, I think it’s a mistake to see the story as an excuse for objectionably privileged viewers to ogle lux décor, as many critics have done. In the 1930s, even during the worst days of The Great Depression, movie audiences eagerly huddled into theaters to see comedies with beautiful people wearing beautiful clothes in beautiful rooms. Such visions were a collective fantasy, an escape. Nowadays, if you’ve read any of the reviews of The Intern or mentions of Meyers, you know that both are taking a lot of heat for offering images of fashionable abodes unobtainable to the masses. Even Jeff Goldstein at Warner Bros. (who is distributing the picture) said:
Nancy Meyers really is a brand onto herself [sic]…It’s not just the stories that attracts people. It’s the lifestyle, it’s the sets, it’s the clothes.”
And he’s right. This is what appeared when I Googled “Nancy Meyers movie”:
But craving a kitchen that would make Ina Garten green can be just a fantasy. It doesn’t necessarily mean that such audience members resist the equal distribution of wealth in reality, though I realize that this is a fine line. My concern is that the critical animosity about Meyers’ interest in “lifestyle” has to do with the fact that she is a woman. Meyers clearly follows in a tradition of Hollywood Cukor-wannabes, such as Walter Lang and James L. Brooks. But where Brooks has a style, Meyers is a brand.
Beige and slate blue is not just a ritzy, beachy color combo. It evades screaming “feminine” or “masculine” to audiences steeped in today’s gender codes. Meyers’ stories need this. She gives her characters a fair place to play, work, love, and fight. Even though it’s not a romantic comedy, in The Intern, Meyers retains the traditional Hollywood romantic comedy’s narrative conceit of mapping professional and personal success onto one other. One cannot be happy with money or romantic love alone, she tells us again and again. One must have both. In Meyers’ cases, characters tend to put work first, or learn to do so. This premise provides a somewhat feminist cast to her pictures, but, at the same time, it takes on quite a troublingly neoliberal perspective. For instance, if they want to succeed in their jobs or in their sex lives, the non-Ben interns must learn to dress “like men,” not boys. At first, I was taken aback by this. What’s wrong with jeans and hoodies? Who would ever want to bring back the social customs that suits and briefcases symbolize? But given The Intern’s many explicitly feminist statements, it seems odd for Meyers to endorse such obviously conservative values. Perhaps she is asking us to think about how we might use the wisdom and style of the past, and make it our own.
There are real, live questions about the relations of gender and age and aspiration, and of all that to capitalism running throughout The Intern, and they’re dealt with in complex ways. So why are critics just talking about credenzas and clothes?
Reader Comments (15)
I always thought letting Keaton go in SGG was a big error.
Oh, Mark. Keaton in SGG is one of my favorite performances. THE INTERN is best when Hathaway and De Niro embrace the sentiment in a similar way.
"Meyers is one of our best character writers."
No.
My issues with Nancy Myers' films is that I sometimes couldn't relate to the characters and their environment. Sometimes, it can be funny but there's also moments where it feels very forced. I sometimes like to think that Myers is a 2nd-rate version of Nora Ephron except Ephron's idea of humor is more presented naturally.
The Holiday is a key example of where ideas work and don't work. The stuff with Kate Winslet and Eli Wallach was the best thing in the film because it actually took its time for the relationship to develop and it was actually heartwarming. It was a direct contrast to the stuff involving Cameron Diaz who I could care less about.
LOL @goran I had the same reaction. I literally read that paragraph three times for context hoping it was a typo.
Yes, Steven! My friend makes me watch "The Holiday" with her every Christmas, and for me the Winslet/Wallach stuff is all that holds up (that and Cameron Diaz's fake movie trailers in her mind and her downing Pepcid AC like candy).
I loved It's Complicated. I also liked the Dianne Keaton one but wish she had chosen Keanu. This one feels creepy but I will be sure to catch it on United.
Kyle -- i'm with you on Keaton in SGG. love that performance.
I loved how Myers leveraged Diane's own persona into a deeper emotionalism and coaxed a truly captivating performance from her. I'm hoping she can do the same thing with DeNiro. I'm getting a Dr. Wally vibe from him in this role, and playing off that character in Marvin's Room could pay off here.
For me, the crux in Nancy Meyers movie is the casting. I love SGG because the cast is so wonderful and re-watchable. Frances McDormand! Reeves, Peet, Keaton, Nicholson. Even the small parts are beautifully cast. Rachel Ticotin (love her), Patrick Fischler.
But when the movie is cast with actors I don't care about, it doesn't work for me. I agree with Steven and jakey about the best parts of The Holiday. Of the lead 4 actors, I just don't like two of them. Of the trio in It's Complicated, I loathe/ meh/ like them.
Like SGG, The Parent Trap was perfectly cast, and I loved that one. Now I can't watch it because... Lindsay Lohan. Too sad. And What Women Want had lots of good actors, but is now unwatchable because... Mel Gibson.
Now, The Intern has two leads, and I like Anne Hathaway. I can ignore the dismissive tripe that is written about her and about Nancy Meyers, but I've been finished with Robert De Niro for years. My god, with all the great American actors of that age, why did she have to pick him? I'm already mentally recasting.
And I'm puzzled when critics scorn Meyers movies for the sets and clothes. That says to me that they are not even looking. Because the sets are great (oooo, The Parent Trap), but the clothes are awful.
While saying the best character writer is a bit of a stretch, I am a big Nancy Meyers apologist and cannot hide the fact that I unequivocally enjoyed "The Intern." Character writing is what makes her movies pop even more than the crazy cool kitchens.
While yes the white washed Brooklyn is a problem and her movies are aimed squarely at rich, white women, she is a fantastic voice that does serve a portion of the film industry that does not get the regular attention it deserves.
It was refreshing to watch a film about decent people trying to maintain their quality of life. It's not inherently stacked with crazy conflict, but is really great comfort food.
As for the gender politics of it all, I still fail to grasp how the critics are railing against the De Niro - Hathaway friendship. The film is not a story about a "woman who learns that she needs an old man in order to succeed in life." While De Niro offers her advice, she still actively makes her own decisions, many times not doing what he tells her. In fact, their friendship is built off of mutual respect - she respects him for his work ethic and commitment, he respects her as she built her whole company from scratch and, even at the beginning, was doing a damn good job as a CEO.
Does it deserve an Oscar or are any of them on the performance level of Keaton in Something's Gotta Give? No. But they have crafted one of the most blindly enjoyable films of the year.
"Meyers clearly follows in a tradition of Hollywood Cukor-wannabes, such as Walter Lang and James L. Brooks. But where Brooks has a style, Meyers is a brand" bless you for that, I could not agree more. It's the same way "Sex and the City" was always criticized for being about splurging and clothes and drinking and fucking, when clearly SJP and MPK were being Cukor-wannabes as well. We all knew Carrie could never afford those clothes and shoes on a writer's salary, but they were still goddamn beautiful to look at and sometimes looking at pretty things can be so pleasurable.
PS: That hotel scene with "Singing in the Rain" was such perfection. Anne feeding Robert overpriced peanuts and saying she could afford them because she worked like crazy to pay for that was such a delight, and him telling her not to give up her dreams to save a marriage was so unexpected! I was sobbing so I almost choked on my Diet Coke when the scene took a turn for BIG TIME GIRL POWER. Like a less existential, but just as moving, homage to "Lost in Translation".
I totally forgot how well The Parent Trap was cast. Lisa Ann Walter (she of stand-up and two faile sitcoms)! Polly Holliday! Maggie Wheeler (*not* doing her Janice voice)! Elaine Hendrix!
Well yeah, I love SGG and IC and I liked WWW and TH.
The only thing in SGG that still creeps me out a little is Diane's crying... I don't know, I always have to skip that. Sorry Nat.
Otherwise she's great and the Globe win was fully deserved.
And in IC I always shake my head why the hell Meryl's character Jane wants a bigger house. BIGGER??? IT'S A PALACE ALREADY!!!
But okay....
That said, I'll definitely watch The Intern. Not in a theatre, but definitely on DVD. 8)
Nancy Myers's choice is quite praise worthy. She has selected two of the most talented and into the character actor and actress. Anne Hathaway with his clothing has inspired the fashion industry. She has worn a White Trench Coat which is available at Sky-Seller Online Shop.