The Internship has the misfortune of being wrongfully marketed by its trailer, which sells one of the film's throwaway jokes about the X-men movies as if it was the best kneeslapping joke in a cheap goofy comedy. I scoffed when I saw the trailer, but The Internship isn't entirely what its trailer represents to be. What is hidden from everybody is that it's also partly a drama delivering a positive message about striving forward and taking risks in life.
For the most part, it's a charming comedy drama. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson play to their own strengths. Vaughn always had a natural salesman type quality and here he really sells that.
The stark contrast between Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson's characters, who are old school salesmen, and the young tech-savvy geek kids is overly exaggerated. The film acts as though being an face-to-face type salesman means never coming into any contact with the internet, smart phones and have no knowledge of contemporary popular culture. This is primarily where the comedy is drawn from and it all varies from a laugh to a chuckle to no laughs. The comedy fares better when it doesn't draw from that character contrast. One noteworthy gag was the Google team building event where they all played a faux Quidditch match. That was knee-slapping hilarious. Are team building activities at Google really that much fun?
In the end, the sincerity of The Internship's life affirming message is somewhat tainted by the fact that the film plays like a Google recruitment ad. For a viewer that may be taken back by the big blatant advertisement will probably not enjoy the film very much. It didn't bother me much because there was just enough sincerity and laughs to pull me through the commercial-like aspects. That is the dividing line between audiences who will be charmed by The Internship or be turned off by it, because strictly speaking it is a bit of a mixed bag.
For the most part, it's a charming comedy drama. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson play to their own strengths. Vaughn always had a natural salesman type quality and here he really sells that.
The stark contrast between Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson's characters, who are old school salesmen, and the young tech-savvy geek kids is overly exaggerated. The film acts as though being an face-to-face type salesman means never coming into any contact with the internet, smart phones and have no knowledge of contemporary popular culture. This is primarily where the comedy is drawn from and it all varies from a laugh to a chuckle to no laughs. The comedy fares better when it doesn't draw from that character contrast. One noteworthy gag was the Google team building event where they all played a faux Quidditch match. That was knee-slapping hilarious. Are team building activities at Google really that much fun?
In the end, the sincerity of The Internship's life affirming message is somewhat tainted by the fact that the film plays like a Google recruitment ad. For a viewer that may be taken back by the big blatant advertisement will probably not enjoy the film very much. It didn't bother me much because there was just enough sincerity and laughs to pull me through the commercial-like aspects. That is the dividing line between audiences who will be charmed by The Internship or be turned off by it, because strictly speaking it is a bit of a mixed bag.