The Intern

Nancy Meyers’s film reached its cast the long way. At Paramount the leads discussed were Tina Fey and Michael Caine; the female role then went to Reese Witherspoon, who left early in 2014, and Anne Hathaway took over. Meyers builds the picture out of rooms. The partition free office the story places in Red Hook was shot in a photography studio, and Meyers and designer Kristi Zea toured real start ups first. In Ben’s house they left the real residents’ oils, vinegars and pitchers in place, because as Zea put it reality cannot be duplicated that well. The missing office walls are the staging device. Ben’s desk sits beside Jules, so every exchange between the leads happens where others can hear, and the conflict is kept low to match: the pressure to hire an outside chief executive and the crack in the marriage both close without raised voices. It took more abroad than in North America, and a Hindi adaptation followed. Rishi Kapoor was signed for De Niro’s part; after his death in 2020 Amitabh Bachchan took it. A good fit if you will give two hours to talk staged at the desk beside Jules, in the open office and the car. Less so if you want the question of whether Jules keeps her company to carry a real cost.