Sometimes a trailer comes along that just makes you smile in spite of yourself. Anne Hathaway is so adorable that for some she’s too adorable. Robert De Niro, on the other hand, well he’s Robert De Niro, so if he wants to be adorable I’m not going to tell him otherwise. Now you can watch them be adorable together in the second trailer for The Intern.
The movie focuses on De Niro’s character, Ben Whittaker, who is a retiree bored out of his mind. In order to keep himself busy he becomes the "senior" intern to Anne Hathaway’s Jules Ostin, CEO of a company she founded. While the first trailer for the movie spent a lot of time focusing on the fish-out-of-water story of 70-year-old Whittaker as an intern in a young tech start-up, this time we see much more of the relationship that grows between the young CEO and her elder intern. He seems truly impressed with the company the young woman has built, while she needs somebody to lean on when others begin to doubt her ability.
The two Oscar-winners look to be well matched, and even in the trailer you get the sense that the two actors work well together. With Hathaway herself being an actress who has reached incredible levels of success considering her age, and who also has her share of detractors, the movie might even be a bit of art imitating life. For that reason Hathaway feels very much like the right choice for this role. Previously both Tina Fey and Reese Witherspoon were attached to star before Hathaway came on board. As the youngest of the three, Hathaway helps De Niro look even more out of place, heightening that humor.
There’s also a strong current of the classic "your elders have something to teach you" trope, as De Niro obviously represents a classic male archetype that the movie will regret having lost. Luckily he's there to impart some knowledge on the poor lost millennial men of the film. At one point in the trailer, Hathaway laments the loss of classic "men" like Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford. One gets the distinct impression that Robert De Niro would be included on the list if he wasn’t standing next to her during the scene.
The movie is written and directed by Nancy Meyers, whose credits include It’s Complicated and The Holiday. While not the romantic comedy that Meyers is known for, The Intern looks to be very much like its predecessors, a fun time at the movies with fun characters. If you’d like to meet The Intern it will be in theaters September 25.
