Film Review: ‘The Intern’ – Variety. Behind at least one successful woman stands an older, wiser man. That, at least, is the chief takeaway from “The Intern,” a perky generation- gap fable that sneaks some surprisingly conservative gender politics into its stainless new world of online startups and amply product- placed Macbooks.

Starring Robert De Niro as the tirelessly benevolent retiree who becomes fashion entrepreneur Anne Hathaway’s unlikely guide to work- life equilibrium, this is smooth white- linen entertainment, unmistakably of a piece with the plush oeuvre of writer- director Nancy Meyers. Yet it takes all the leads’ considerable combined charm to forestall the aftertaste of the pic’s smug life lessons and near- comically blinkered worldview. Watch The Crash Reel Online Fandango there.

Supplanting the romantic fizz of “It’s Complicated” and “Something’s Gotta Give” with scarf- deep social engagement may cost Meyers’ latest a little at the box office, but this “Intern” will still be reasonably well- paid by an under- served date- night crowd.“Love and work, work and love, that’s all there is,” intones 7. Ben Whittaker (De Niro) in the film’s opening voiceover — vaguely quoting Freud, but pinpointing the extended concerns of Meyers’ screenplay with ruthless accuracy. An hour later, one character will suggest changing the subject in a work- focused conversation. Marriage?” another eagerly suggests. These are the options.) Marital stability and professional achievement are the two objectives by which “The Intern” defines its characters and narrative alike, at the expense of any deeper personal or cultural interests; when Ben tells a date that he can summarize himself in 1. For Hathaway’s heavily burdened career woman Jules Ostin, on the other hand, even 1.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. "I was proud to call Brad a friend, and one I greatly admired. He left his mark on our industry and in our hearts," said his replacement, Jim Gianopulos.

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The founder and president of About the Fit, a Brooklyn- based online couture retailer in the mold of Net- a- Porter, she’s a Type A micromanager who has trouble leaving even customer service calls in the hands of her eminently capable employees. When her patient deputy (Andrew Rannells) announces that she’s to be assigned an assistant via the company’s newly- introduced senior intern program, she takes it as a personal affront. Enter Ben, whose affability and helpfulness are as consistent as the square charcoal business suits he wears every day. After trying out a host of hobbies and adult education courses to stave off the loneliness of spouseless retirement, the former telephone- directory manufacturer (a pointedly analog career path) has come back around to the workplace: Tai chi classes are all very well, but can’t verily be classified as either work or love.

Hoping for a new lease on life from the fiercely young, hip surrounds of About the Fit, he arrives with rolled- up sleeves and a can- do attitude — only to be brusquely ignored by Jules, more frazzled than ever following pressure from investors to hire a senior male CEO for the company. By this point, it can’t have escaped viewers’ attention that Meyers has fashioned “The Intern” as something of a generational backflip on “The Devil Wears Prada,” with the cannily cast Hathaway having graduated to the role of corporate fashion dragon. She’s even permitted, in a witty touch, to toss her jacket at Ben in the blasé manner of Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestley.) The difference, of course, is that Jules hasn’t quite Priestley’s time- hardened unflappability, while De Niro is no hapless naif a la Andie Sachs: The balance of authority between them is awkward from the get- go, as Jules complains that her well- seasoned intern is “too observant.”The turning point, as in “Prada,” is when home- work boundaries are crossed. Ben steps in for Jules’ personal chauffeur (her on- trend preference for cycling, cited in introductory scenes, is inexplicably forgotten), getting to know her young daughter Paige (Jo.

Jo Kushner) and affable stay- at- home husband Matt (deftly played by Anders Holm) in the process. Yet as Jules’ marriage, rather than any workplace dilemmas, becomes the focus of the drama, “The Intern’s” superficially 2. Jules asserts that she can have it all, but she requires an awful lot of mentoring from Ben — whose professional and marital history is, at least as he tells it, wholly unblemished — to get to that point. There’s not a lot of inter- generational exchange here, as Ben arrives in the narrative with little to learn; beyond helping him set up a Facebook page, Jules doesn’t get to impart much perspective of her own. Before long, Ben’s even monitoring her drinking with raised eyebrows: She may come to call him her “best friend” (largely because there’s scant evidence of any others), but the subtext is that it’s hard for a woman in her position to find support among her own. Certainly, the film’s other female characters do little for its feminist credentials: Jules’ fellow kindergarten moms are characterized as spiteful housewives, while her mother (heard, never seen) is a passive- aggressive needler.

The great Celia Weston is egregiously wasted as a dippy elder intern, while as the frisky office masseuse — this is a Nancy Meyers film, after all — who embarks on a staid courtship with Ben, fellow “oldie- but- goodie” Rene Russo has little to do but twinkle kindly from the sidelines. She’s over a decade younger than De Niro, but “oldie” status comes early in this world.)If older women get short shrift, then, their male counterparts are praised to the skies. Hathaway even gets to deliver a wince- worthy sermon to Jules’ cardigan- wearing twentysomething male employees — themselves equally in thrall to Ben — bemoaning the decline of masculinity and decorum in modern men. Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford (not to mention, by implication, De Niro himself), by contrast, are held up as superior role models of “cool.” This is pretty retrograde stuff, and hardly plausible coming from Jules given her own husband’s enlightened decision to give up his career for hers — not exactly a maneuver from the Jack Nicholson playbook. At least there’s a genuine crackle of chemistry between Hathaway and De Niro to sell us on their characters’ mutual appreciation: Both actors can perform this kind of personality- led comedy on cue, but also tease out unscripted hints of inner conflict when so inclined.

Hathaway does particularly well in a role that frequently draws direct attention to its own unlikeability: Both the steelier and more genial sides of the actress’s signature class- captain charisma play persuasively into her business persona.

Brad Grey Dead: Former Paramount Chief Was 5. Brad Grey, the former chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, died Sunday from cancer at his Holmby Hills home with his family by his side. He was 5. 9. Grey stepped down at Paramount in February after leading the studio for 1. He arrived from Brillstein- Grey Management, the powerhouse talent management agency that he founded with the late Bernie Brillstein in 1. While Grey left a mixed legacy behind at Paramount — during his tenure, the studio relied on such franchises as Transformers, Star Trek and Mission: Impossible and also saw the Al Gore climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth win an Oscar — as a manager, he left an even more indelible mark on the culture, playing a role in bringing such iconic TV series as The Larry Sanders Show, The Sopranos and Real Time With Bill Maher to cable television. Showtime Full Fire Birds Online Free here.

As executive producer of The Sopranos, he shared in two best drama series Emmys, and he also won four Peabody Awards. Before taking on the Paramount job, Grey formed the Plan B production company with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, which began with a first- look deal at Warner Bros., where it produced. Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Martin Scorsese's best picture Oscar- winner The Departed. When Pitt and Aniston's marriage ended she left the partnership, and in 2. Grey and Pitt moved Plan B to Paramount, which served as its home base until last month, when the production company signed a new deal with Megan Ellison's Annapurna. Grey also brought Scorsese into his Paramount fold with an overall deal that resulted in such films as Shutter Island (2. Hugo (2. 01. 1), The Wolf of Wall Street (2.

Silence. Grey, however, also saw lots of valuable intellectual property leave Paramount. The studio bought Steven Spielberg’s Dream. Works SKG in 2. 00. Spielberg’s team and the Melrose Avenue studio resulted in the filmmaker cutting ties with Paramount and striking a distribution deal with Disney just three years later — although Paramount retained stakes in a number of properties, including the lucrative Transformers franchise.

Following Disney’s purchase of Marvel in 2. Marvel ended a distribution deal with Paramount, under which the studio had earned an 8 percent distribution fee on movies like 2. Iron Man. And Dream. Works Animation, which had seen its movies distributed through Paramount since 2. Fox in 2. 01. 3. (In 2. DWA was sold to Universal, which will release its future films.)Grey was pushed out at Paramount soon after Bob Bakish came on as the new CEO at parent Viacom, replacing Philippe Dauman.

In March, Jim Gianopulos, the former longtime head of 2. Century Fox's movie studio, was hired to run Paramount."All of us at Paramount are deeply saddened by the news of Brad Grey's passing," Gianopulos said in a statement. He was at the helm of the studio for over a decade and was responsible for so many of its most beloved films. I was proud to call Brad a friend, and one I greatly admired. He will be missed by us all, and he left his mark on our industry and in our hearts."In a memo to staff upon his departure, Grey said, "It has been my privilege to be part of Paramount's storied history, and I am grateful to Sumner Redstone for giving me this opportunity.

Above all, I am indebted to all of you, the wonderful people here at Paramount. Your creativity, professionalism and integrity are second to none."Said Redstone and his daughter, Viacom vice chair Shari Redstone, in a statement: "We are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of our friend Brad Grey, whose tremendous kindness and talent inspired so many of us in the entertainment industry. His vision and leadership at Paramount Pictures brought iconic films and programs to audiences around the world. We are so grateful for Brad's friendship."Born in the Bronx in 1. Grey attended the State University of New York at Buffalo and graduated in 1.

He entered show business by serving as an intern to Buffalo alum Harvey Weinstein, back when the indie film mogul was still a concert promoter."Brad decided on his own initiative one day to pick me up in the airport, in his own car, so I wouldn’t take a cab. The rest was history," Weinstein recalled Monday in a statement. He noted that Grey later worked "in the first Miramax office with Robert Newman and my mother" and that he was "crushed" by the news of Grey's death. At just 2. 0, Grey produced his first concert, an appearance by Frank Sinatra in Buffalo in 1.

Decades later, Grey bought Sinatra's Beverly Hills home for $1. And as he tracked new comics, he discovered his first client, comedian Bob Saget. Grey also executive produced such TV shows as The Naked Truth, Mr.

Show With Bob and David, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, News. Radio, The Steve Harvey Show, Maher's Politically Incorrect and Just Shoot Me! His résumé as a movie producer also included Opportunity Knocks (1. The Wedding Singer (1. The Replacement Killers (1. City by the Sea (2.

View From the Top (2. Running With Scissors (2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2. As a manager, his clients included Pitt, Aniston, Maher, Marc Anthony, Jim Belushi, Wayne Brady, Dana Carvey, Bob Costas, Courteney Cox, Rudolph Giuliani, Greg Kinnear, Rob Lowe, John Malkovich, Lorne Michaels, Dennis Miller, Guy Ritchie, Adam Sandler, Martin Short, Christian Slater and Jimmy Smits. In 1. 99. 8, while at Brillstein- Grey, Grey was famously sued for $1.

Garry Shandling (they settled out of court a year later). Shandling's suit alleged that Grey's role as his manager and executive producer of The Larry Sanders Show represented a conflict of interest and that Grey was able to "triple- dip," taking excess commissions and fees out of the HBO series. Watch American Hostage Online Hollywoodreporter. Grey is survived by his wife, Cassandra, and their son, Jules, born in 2. Sam, Max and Emily from his marriage to Jill Grey (nee Gutterson), whom he met at SUNY- Buffalo; his mother, Barbara; his brother, Michael; and his sister, Robin. There will be a small private funeral service this week. A memorial service will be scheduled in the coming weeks, the family said.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC. Mike Barnes contributed to this report.