Did you expect this movie to be a fulfilling, touching film about people and hope and holding hands into the future? Because it is. This movie is charming in a very modern way.

First, the acting. It was a very well cast movie. How is Anne Hathaway only 32?! Not that she looks old. She doesn’t. At all. I was like, wow, Anne Hathaway has been around for forever and she can still pull off a late 20s/early 30s startup founder. Apparently, that’s because she is a late 20s/early 30s powerful woman. So weird. If she was British she would already be a Dame for her contributions to acting. Big fan of her. So no surprise that she rocked this role. She took a very approachable, real character and embraced it to good effect.

Robert De Niro played a great part as well. He was touching when he needed to be. Funny when he needed to be. And managed to have a real relationship with Anne Hathaway’s character that wasn’t sexual or patronizing. It was a beautiful partnership of balancing skills and experiences.

The supporting cast was well chosen. The good looking guy from Workaholics had a part that let him expose a less comedic side. The guy from Workaholics that my brother thinks is the funny one wasn’t annoying at all.

The story was a nice break from rom-coms and formulaic feel good films. It wasn’t preachy. It wasn’t heavy. It didn’t force emotions on you. But it wasn’t pointless either. There was a little magic for anyone who what looking. I am part of a generation that was basically raised on coming of age plot lines. This is the adult answer to those stories as I stopped being an angsty teen outcast raging against the system through violent journal entries. This is what we need now that we are of age. A movie about being an adult. Making hard decisions and compromising either our dreams or something else. A real life example of a strong woman with real life problems and not everything being okay. This is a good example of being true to yourself and following your passions. It’s fairly realistic. I left with the seeds of some really dark thoughts about love, work, and the limited power of effort but I wasn’t swallowed by them because the movie did a fantastic job with tone and pacing.

Verdict: A good flick. Anyone could see this. It’s not a must see but it will at least be a little different in its familiarity. Grow up from teen angst, say no to opposites attract romances, and learn the pleasure of not having it all but having the will to try. A few raunchy jokes but if they don’t go over a kid’s head then the kid knows the stuff already.