“The Intern” is a rare bauble of a movie in our youth-obsessed age.

The film pays tribute to the wisdom of our elders, showing how one senior citizen improves the lives of his co-workers and the woman whose vision brought the company to life. How? He doesn’t complain, works harder than everyone around him, and dresses in a natty suit and tie every day. No exceptions.

The film is also “regressive,” “retrograde,” “smug”and “paternalistic,” according to some film critics.

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The film, now playing in theaters nationwide, casts Robert De Niro as a widower seeking new challenges. So when he hears about an Internet startup seeking “seasoned” interns, he applies. At first, the company’s boss (Anne Hathaway) wants little to do with her new intern. Soon, his hard work, upbeat attitude and professionalism prove invaluable to her — and her company.

Writer-director Nancy Meyers’ attempt to honor older Americans is under attack, and not just for any dramatic flaws or screenwriter miscues. Seems some critics bristle at a man coming to a woman’s aide as De Niro does in the film. She cries. He lends her a handkerchief. The horror!

Variety whines that the film “sneaks some surprisingly conservative gender politics” into the storyline. Later in the review, we’re told that having a character cheer old-school, masculine stars like Harrison Ford is “pretty retrograde” stuff, as if dressing to inspire, not for a TV binge marathon, should be thrown into the cultural waste basket.

Seems some critics bristle at a man coming to a woman’s aide as De Niro does in the film.

Redeye Chicago’s review dubs “The Intern” “quietly offensive” and wonders why any movie would celebrate carrying a handkerchief and a handsome leather briefcase over, what … a fanny pack?

This isn’t the story of a hapless woman rescued by a man. Hathaway’s character isn’t a hot mess. She’s a bright, driven professional who created a remarkably successful company out of whole cloth. She’s an entrepreneur with too much on her plate, but she’s smart enough to accept help — eventually — from a seasoned senior.

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And, yes, she’s a little withdrawn at times and doesn’t see a solution when it’s staring her in the face.

It’s a shame De Niro’s Ben Whittaker doesn’t have a single flaw. That’s a storytelling hiccup worthy of a critic’s barbs. Roasting the movie for other, more politically correct reasons, though says more about the critics than the movie itself.