LEAD
CAST: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Rose Byrne,
Maz Minghella, Joanna Garcia, John Goodman, Dylan O’Brien, Jessica Szohr DIRECTOR: Shawn
Levy SCREENWRITER: Vince
Vaughn, Jared Stern PRODUCER: Vince Vaughn, Shawn Levy EDITOR: Dean
Zimmerman
MUSICAL
DIRECTOR: Christophe Beck
GENRE: Drama,
Comedy RUNNING TIME: 119 minutes CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jonathan Brown DISTRIBUTOR: 20th
Century Fox
LOCATION:
US
Technical assessment: 3
Moral assessment: 3
MTRCB rating: PG 13
CINEMA rating: PG 13 (for age 13 and below with
parental guidance)
Practically all their life Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) have
been salesmen. They sell watches, but now their employer says nobody needs
watches anymore in this digital world, so he shuts down the company. In need of a job, having few options
and wanting to prove they still have the oomph to succeed, they defy the odds,
and naively chatter their way into a coveted internship at Google where they
become oddballs among tech-savvy college students. However, gaining a foothold in this dream company is just
the beginning of two mid-lifers’ uphill climb. Seen as dinosaurs in the Google universe, they must now go
into battle with techie geniuses half their age, virtually armed with mere
sticks and stones.
The Internship is almost entirely shot in the actual Google facility fondly called
“Googleplex”, giving viewers a field trip to a utopia that many tech-savvy kids
dream of belonging in. Outside of
Vaughn and Wilson, composing the supporting cast are unfamiliar faces with
adequate acting skills, giving the impression that the viewer is actually there
with those bushy-tailed college kids and imbibing of Google’s corporate
culture. The plot is easy to
follow, aided by tight editing and dialogue that needs no padding for
substance. Although it is the
Wilson-Vaughn chemistry that obviously carries the story, the script fairly
gives each actor his or her moment to shine.
Although a number of film critics think The Internship is one long commercial for Google, CINEMA begs to disagree. Google is bigger than the movie, and
does not need props to keep it up.
The story with its casually delivered but sobering message couldn’t have
been told more effectively and convincingly outside of Google’s universe. In fact it’s telling young people that
tech-savvy is not enough; one can get smart, too, from years of being in the
“university of hard knocks.” The Internship is prodding us to take a
second look at our biases, busting our prejudices and asking us to keep hoping
for equality in this world. The
Internship shows us that for a team to gel, teammates must be open to learn
from one another, regardless of color, creed, age and rage. A most telling moment comes when the
interns are told to group themselves into competing teams. Nobody wants the dinosaurs, and so they
have no choice but to team up with the three other rejects: a reserved Indian
girl, a brooding Caucasian, and a Chinese guy with mommy issues. Guess which team wins? Of course, the one you want to win.
