Presumably, the executives at 20th Century Fox decided to greenlight the production of The Internship because they had faith in the comedic duo of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson (whom I will refer to as Vince and Owen from here on, because they’re like old friends). V and O launched The Wedding Crashers on the largely non-wedding crashing public nearly eight years ago, and while neither actor has managed to build a particularly noteworthy post-Crashers career for himself, there still exists some lingering good will for their prior accomplishments. A quick look at the marketing for The Internship reveals a familiar formula: Vince and Owen play a pair of rakish (but charismatic!) BFF’s who enter a prudish environment and amuse the audience with their sardonic quips and irreverent attitude. The posters, featuring the familiar faces of our two stars on a plain white background, are bland enough for just about everyone. Who knows? Maybe these characters will learn some nifty lessons about themselves along the way.
There’s nothing wrong with a solid buddy comedy (and that’s exactly where The Wedding Crashers succeeds), but the trailer for The Internship raises a whole slew of concerns. If you’ve seen it, then you know the film is about two travelling salesmen who lose their jobs and, in desperation, enlist in a Google internship where they must compete for real jobs with a herd of tech-savvy 20-year-olds. The problem isn’t simply that the film seems to be engaging in the most insidious product placement since Mac and Me, but that the marketing also suggests a particularly tone deaf commentary on the economic landscape of post-recession America. While actual statistics might show you that over a quarter of Americans between the ages of 18 and 35 are not employed, or that many college and university graduates turn to unpaid internships because they can’t find jobs, the trailer for The Internship gives us a bizarro world in which the individuals who are actually hurt by the recession are the 40-something salesmen with no children. Like, yeah, that’s the missing ingredient at one of the most influential corporations in the world: two middle-aged white men.
It’s unreasonable to judge a film by its trailer. Perhaps the actual movie would provide a realistic perspective on the post-recession challenges faced by young people. Well, I saw the movie, and it doesn’t. To be fair, there is one scene in which Vince and Owen listen to their younger colleagues briefly explain their economic predicament, but that moment is a brief interlude in a film with so little connection to reality that we’re supposed to believe Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn were hired by Google for “diversity,” but I digress. You might be asking “Does all this stuff matter if The Internship is funny?” Well, yes it would, but that is not something I have to consider because The Internship is not funny. Sure, Vince and Owen have a charming and not-too-overtly homoerotic chemistry that can be pleasant to watch, but that chemistry is best displayed in a raunchy sex comedy like The Wedding Crashers, not in the PG-13 land inhabited by The Internship.
Credited as the director of this mess is Shawn Levy, whose distinctive oeuvre includes Date Night, a film that convinced rational people to dislike Tina Fey. So it’s no surprise that The Internship is full of the clichés that characterize the contemporary big budget comedy. Aging male comedy stars trying to remain relevant? Check (what could be more relevant than the internet!). Underwritten female love interest? Check (this time it’s Rose Byrne as an overworked Google exec that catches Owen’s eye… because she’s attractive). Valuable lessons about life? Check (I’ve already forgotten what it is this time around… something about not giving up your dreams). Generational culture clash comedy that should appeal to younger viewers but probably won’t? Check (“The old guys don’t know what Instagram is!”).
Theatres are full of bad films, but few bad films try to impress you with their “relevancy” in as forced a manner as The Internship, which is constantly finding ways to inform the audience that Google is a brand that improves peoples’ lives. As part of the arrangement between Fox and Google, the search engine giant was given approval over how it was represented in the film, which might explain why it often feels like a 120-minute corporately-sponsored PSA for the brand. The Internship commits a trifecta of sins: it acts as a shill for its corporate sponsor, it misrepresents middle-aged white men as victims, and, worst of all, it’s just not very funny. Whether or not you are, at this moment, a paid or unpaid intern, I suggest you skip The Internship, it’s not worth your time. If you want to know what else is playing, you can always Google it.
____
Alan Jones writes about film for Toronto Standard. You can follow him on Twitter at@alanjonesxxxv.
For more, follow us on Twitter @TorontoStandard and subscribe to our newsletter.
