ROBERT DENIRO WORKS IN THE INTERN

Robert DeNiro & Anne Hathaway starring in THE INTERN

Being a Living Legend has its pros and cons. The pro is, well, you're a Living Legend. And that title, given his previous track record, epitomizes Robert DeNiro... But when starring in yet another mainstream popcorn comedy, it's like John Steinbeck writing a Harlequin Romance...

year: 2015

But wait... this time around, something isn't missing. The collecting-a-paycheck DeNiro is replaced with a man so utterly stiff and endearing (imagine what his ailing character scolded Robin Williams to be more like in AWAKENINGS), he works despite being obviously created to win over both the audience and his brilliant tech female boss Jules, played by Anne Hathaway, running an online clothing company with a daughter and a stay-at-home husband; the latter as useless as DeNiro's 70-year-old intern, Ben, is utterly reliable....

Rating: ***1/2

Scenes with DeNiro and Hathaway are genuine, moving the story along. Yet the plot isn't the stress of possibly sharing her company with a more qualified C.E.O., or melodramatic problems after work. These are mere afterthoughts compared to what Ben can provide, with his old school charm and wisdom, to help her out of the fancy yet disheveled canvas she's painted herself into.

For those (like yours truly) who miss "the old DeNiro" (young DeNiro in classic films); while he's not TAXI DRIVER or RAGING BULL, he effectively plays a gentleman whose been around the block despite the tract being somewhat cliche and predictable.

Trivia/Connection: Two actresses from the sit-com ALICE make appearances: Linda Lavin as a scene-stealing, smitten neighbor and Celia Weston (who replaced Diane Ladd who replaced Polly Holliday) as a fellow co-worker. And that show was based on a motion picture directed by DeNiro's then-cinematic partner Martin Scorsese.