Nancy Meyers has become a brand unto herself. With a string of highly successful adult comedies in the 2000s, the filmmaker known for her lavish kitchen sets resonates in the hearts of many. Whether it’s her late-in-life romance Something’s Gotta Give, or her house-swapping bi-coastal dual romances in The Holiday, or her divorce love triangle It’s Complicated, Meyers has dedicated her career to movies that don’t luxuriate in big special effects sequences or end of the world action, but rather flights of fancy that make audiences feel nice and cozy. At this point, it has been nearly ten years since Nancy Meyers has made a movie for the big screen. 2015’s The Intern was already a hit at the time, but is finding a new life on Netflix this month by reaching number one on the platform’s top ten. It just goes to show, Nancy Meyers’s light touch is something audiences can’t resist.
Nancy Meyers Makes Delightful, Comforting Movies
Part of the appeal of a Nancy Meyers comedy is the relaxed environment it takes place in. Her films are perfectly polished, extremely well-decorated, and present a world without heavy drama, and The Intern is no exception. Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro) finds retirement to be a little too dull after the passing of his wife, so he applies for a senior internship program at an online fashion start-up. After being hired, Ben is tasked with assisting the company’s founder, Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). Despite Jules’s initial resistance, the two begin to form a bond, with Ben finding the right balance of when to step in and help Jules and when to just sit back and lend Jules an ear. While the two face some external conflicts, the drama is never between Jules and Ben. Despite her resume, Hathaway is far from a Miranda Priestly type, and that’s all because of the Nancy Meyers patina.
Throughout her filmography, Meyers has taken a gentle approach to her characters, and De Niro’s performance is a prime example. As Ben Whittaker, De Niro plays a kindly figure whose temper is never raised above a light frustration, and acts as a guiding force to the younger generation surrounding him. The power of Meyers is taking one of cinema’s most famous tough-guy gangsters and making him a teddy bear that knows the exact soup Jules needed after a stressful meeting. Meyers also knows the exact right tone to strike for De Niro’s relationship with Hathaway. While Ben and Jules get close, there is never a strained As Good As It Gets-type relationship, nor a forced surrogate father-daughter scenario. Their friendship is one of mutual respect rather than attraction, which may seem boring in a movie, but Meyers keeps it in her exact reality, which makes it not only sweet but engaging.
For as much extravagance as Nancy Meyers’s movies display on screen (again, just look at the kitchens), she is able to keep them at a tone that feels close to reality. By keeping the stakes light, there is an everyday feeling to her movies, even in some exaggerated situations. De Niro as Whittaker isn’t an angel hiding his wings, he’s just a guy who’s lived a lot of life and he’s happy to get to know other people. Jules’s company isn’t teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, but she has to choose between remaining as CEO or taking some time back to focus on her family. While there is some drama at home, it is played honestly by the characters, with Meyers never slipping into something overly dramatic. This can best be summed up by how quickly Jules overcomes her anxiety around Ben. It only takes a day for her to realize she likes having him around, and she immediately apologizes after reassigning him when she felt he was getting personal. Another movie might have drawn this out and needed time to melt an icy Jules, but that’s not a Nancy Meyers movie. Meyers moves her characters through their problems with a graceful dignity that feels like how someone would handle it in the real world.
Netflix Should Make A New Nancy Meyers Movie
Nancy Meyers’ movies are so watchable because they’re cozy, gentle, and feel close to reality. Even if the houses are lavish and the stories occasionally heightened, they feel like the kind of imagined reality any of us would love to live in without the hassle of real life getting in the way. Meyers’ movies fill a specific and beloved niche when it came to film, and it is a major disappointment that she hasn’t made a film in the ten years since The Intern. Two years ago, Netflix greenlit and then canceled what would have been a new movie for Meyers due to budget concerns. Shame on Netflix. The Intern‘s recent success shows that audiences are clamoring for more Nancy Meyers and her delightfully perfect worlds.
The Intern is now streaming on Netflix in the U.S.
