Somewhere towards the final third of The Internship Owen Wilson’s reluctant date reveals much she’d expected to hate him (or at least his character Nick) and expresses surprise that she’s actually had a really nice night out.
That scene pretty much captures my feelings towards the film – having seen the last possible media screening I’d heard a lot of dissatisfaction and the marketing had lead me to expect some kind of screwball, gross-out ‘comedy’.
I really wasn’t looking forward to seeing this and yet, in the end, and like Nick’s date, I actually really enjoyed myself.
Wilson and Vince Vaughn play redundant and wholly IT-illiterate salesman who lie their way onto a Google intern programme with the promise of a job for the best performing team.
Our web unsavvy duo are paired with a group of social misfits and geeks (including Teen Wolf’s Dylan O’Brien) who are pitched against Max Minghella’s aggressively competitive Graham.
As they fail in a series of tasks, the misfits bond and learn to look beneath the surface, pulling together until the contest is a two-horse race between Graham and his put-upon teammates.
A sort of Police Academy for the Social Network era, The Internship offers few surprises (beyond that of actually being a good night out) but packs plenty of belly laughs and likeable performances, especially from the two leads.
Unsurprisingly Google gets a lot of name-checking and product placement but it’s not the spam-fest you might have feared.
At times resembling The Prisoner’s Village, with its chill-out zones, sleep pods, multi-coloured bikes and mandatory cheeriness the Google campus is the kind of place I would hate to work.
The Internship’s two hour running time was a long enough stay for me.
