THE INTERN- Film Review (Athinaion cinema, city of Athens)

Anne Hathaway is not my favourite. I think she's sort of stuck in the role of the damsel in distress who pulls through, like a Julia Roberts revisited. Nonetheless, in this [The intern] Nancy Meyers film, I liked her, she had something genuine in her performance and she did match Robert de Niro in his piece-of-cake-role as the 72-year old intern in her e-commerce (miraculously skyrocketed) business. But this a film review, not a lesson during an MBA class, so I won't go into any SWOT analysis, I' ll stick to more performative data.
So....,
Being difficult to please, I must state that I do have resevations about women's writing, women's this and that. I mean, who am I to argue with worlds apart, when I am an advocate for "amazon cities", but OK, let's not get into that right now. It's just that I think the times call not for segregation practices, but for assimilation of women's lib in the zeitgeist of the 21st c., which is both progressive and regressive towards women who are still being subjugated to all sort of discrimanatory policies. And I disagree or am suspicious with what was named women's writing/cinema/music whatever, because it hasn't come up with much victory over the "cause" other than helping Rianna, Miley and more to get easily undressed to catch attention, inventing Nannies, Diaries, the New York quartet of Sex and the City and talking about fat in the hips, married sex and lamenting over adultery. So I am happy that Meyers didn't step too much into the twilight zone of sentimentality with her characters, but gave them a sort of realistic allure. Plus she cunningly reversed the traditional family pattern and eased guilt upon patriarchy about bread-winners and Alpha-males.

The weak point of the film to my opinion has nothing to do with the script, the acting or anything of the sort. It's an OK film to fill two descent hours. My reservation has to do with the body-type Hollywood pushes onto the silver screen and the extreme thinness of the super stars. This is not healthy eating, it's the hunger games. It's great to exercise, avoid saturated fat and eat vegetables and fruit, but this is getting too far. Starvation, really? If not anorexic, then is it from guilt? Is it to teach a lesson to the obese? I think that the answer can be a mix of all that, but deep down, I feel it's a much worse situation, cause it seems to be about the chance to peak into the exclusive world of the few and the privileged and their latest trend for longevity: yoga and starvation to the point of arrogance. Elevated to universal truth. It is as if food is a low, unworthy activity unless in precious ingredients and very few bites in highly meditated nutritious combinations.

Score: 3* (out of 5) for this modern fairy tale

Thanks for reading.

Natasha