A quiet but quirky mid-life woman has a sexual and lifestyle awakening after she instantly falls for the new guy in her department. Michael Showalter’s latest film “Hello, My Name is Doris” stars Sally Field as the title character. When Doris Miller meets John Fremont (Max Greenfield), her company’s hip new art director, sparks fly magically for Doris. In the cluttered house she shared with her late mother, Doris mines the Internet for information on her one-and-only crush, guided by the 13-year-old granddaughter (Isabella Acres) of her best pal Roz (Tyne Daly). When Doris begins showing up at John’s casual events, she wins over his closest of friends, and the group welcomes her into their usual haunts. Her new life change brings Doris a thrilling perspective, but also creates a rift between her and her longtime friends and family, who believe she’s making a fool of herself over a guy half her age. Eager for all the experiences she has missed out on, Doris throws caution to the wind and follows her heart for the very first time. The film is rated R for language and sexual situations.
“Hello, My Name Is Doris” is based off of a short story, and while there is a lot in this film to give a passing grade for, the movie’s thin plot starts cracking in the final third of the movie. What does positively enforce this as a must-see is the very comically divine method of satirically poking fun at today’s hipster trend. There are a lot of really smart one note jokes that brought real laughter out of me. Beyond this is a heartfelt combo of moral fibers about the importance of friendship, as well as finding a world within those people where you belong. The very mood of Doris is presented as a comical character of sorts, but as the movie went on, I noticed a real sadness below an exterior of cutesy quiet. That is where “Doris” succeeds in relating to it’s audience. Not so much in a script which feels a little threatened into taking chances for the very limited plot structure that it has mapped out for itself, but in a character who is reaching for any chance to feel alive again. Doris is a hoarder, and this image of her cluttered house presents a crippling spin on the story and its main protagonist because we come to learn that Doris is living through someone else’s memories and collectibles.
Sally Field’s performance is a tour de force of emotional depth and bravado. It’s under her charisma and likability in this character where the movie gets its wings for a 90 minute journey. Doris is your typical human being with an obsession for a member of the opposite sex, but there are more than a few moments where her madness is played off for laughs that would otherwise be creepy if an actress of less quality portrayed her. Field presents us with her greatest role in over twenty years, and you can certainly feel that there is a couple of things internally about Doris that she relates to. She simply plays the role too wonderfully to never been in some of these situations. This is a character who really wears her heart on her sleeves, and it’s in that glimmer in her eye for a dream to come true that we find it easy to fall in love with her and root for her triumph. Max Greenfield is also terrific as the young object of Doris’s desires. Greenfield is constantly smiling, and it’s impossible not to be infected with happiness from such a cheerful approach to the characters he takes on. Surprisingly, he and Field have really good chemistry in the movie, and we just can’t get enough of their awkward, but engaging hangouts that satisfies equally what both are looking for.
The structure is a little simple, as there really isn’t a lot of room for subplots in this universe. This becomes most evident during the third act that starts to lose a little steam when you realize the predictability of this end result peaking through. That’s not to say that I didn’t go home happy from this film, but I would’ve liked a little more experimental mayhem with the characters inside of this little glass bubble. The cliche use of dream sequences is also something that feels overdone by the second of three times that it uses this niche. The fantasy is always better in film and real life, so it doesn’t help the script in the slightest when that bubble bursts and we are no futher than we were five minutes prior to when the dream began. The film is positively paced, and never feels lagging or dull, but its safe approach leaves a little more to be desired.
“Hello, My Name Is Doris” is an intriguing invitational handshake to a woman who we always want the best for. Because of the magical twinkle of Field, combining with a warm medium of awkward comedy and touching mellow-drama, Showalter packs an indie punch that never abandons the observational satire that he has crafted effortlessly in films like “Kissing Jessica Stein” and “They Came Together”.
7/10