I wasn't the usual genre that I would watched. No; not animation nor action. Just pure comedy. But I was in for a surprise as this movie actually taught me that (well its on the poster) Experience never gets old. It is true! Robert de niro plays a 70-yo intern, Ben who became a intern when he joined a e-commerce startup named 'All the fit' owned by Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). How did he became an intern? Well, ATF rolled out this new senior internship program to outreach retirees that have tons of life long experiences, time and nothing to do. Ben whose wife Molly has passed on, did travel the world, learn a new language, played golf, well almost everything a retired man will do. Yet, the feeling of emptiness, and not having a destination to go, a direction to move bugged him. Chancing upon the flyer for this internship was indeed a god-sent answer to his restlessness.
In addition, this film also tackles on the 'problems' of having a female boss. Anne plays Jules right down to the T. Love all her outfits in the movie :) An independent woman in the office that runs on horse power every single day, barely sleeps, dedicates all her waking moment to ATF, solving problems, meeting clients, teaching staff etc. At home she has a house husband or stay-at-home dad as they prefer to call it, to take care of Paige, her daughter. But things aren't always that smooth or it won't be a movie.
Of course there was the cliche starting that Jules didn't really like Ben, I mean she was not keen on the entire 'senior internship' thing, but slowly Ben started to grow onto her... in a more best friend/ adviser kind of way. Ben also entered into a new relationship of his own with the company's masseuse (yes ATF have their own masseuse to help their staff to relax!) Comedic elements are aplenty, with some interaction between Ben and the other 'not-so-old' interns and current employees. There was also the scene when he was a little bad-a**ed and asked his colleagues to steal Jules' mum's laptop to delete an email that Jules mistakenly sent to her mother (it was the only option... other than hacking through an entire server just to delete one email) The entire show makes me feel that having a old person is actually an asset. I really love how Ben calmly observes everything, as if he has seen everything (well, he should have seen much much more I guess since he IS 70).
Ben always wears a suit (blazer and tie included), carries a handkerchief (they are for ladies, gentlemen should ALL carry one, you can offer it to a lady who is crying to comfort her for instance), uses a vintage 1973 briefcase that never fails. Habits that I noticed were that he ALWAYS stands up when Jules talk to him (since she is his superior) + he buttons his suit back when he does that. Next, he never leaves BEFORE Jules since she is the boss. He cares for his boss, when he saw that Jules was having a hard day, he took the INITIATIVE to clear the messy table she hates, gets her chicken soup and stop her drink-driving chauffeur from driving her. Really like it when he calmly evaluates the situation, his experience is really something that money cannot buy! :)
The producer also paid attention to the tiny details like how elderlies are not tech-savvy nowadays and Ben started out with a clam shell samsung phone before evolving to an iphone smartphone user, even getting a facebook account (though it took him 10 minutes to figure out + some help from Jules), not to mention the part when he didn't even know how to switch his macbook from hibernate to on. But with his attitude to learn, from everyone and anyone, about various issues and in turn becomes their uncle agony, giving advice to his colleagues on their problems, he has become Mr Congeniality, popular with the staff ! score! :)
All in all, it would be a show that I will recommend to watch. Though it might not be your usual type of show but still a movie that will make quite a long lasting impression... (maybe till the next animation movie comes out) ;)
= do something right=
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