Hello, My Name is Doris (movie 2015)...charmed, I'm sure

​    I didn’t know I was a Sally Field fan until this movie. I knew who she was, of course, watched her in movies and tv shows, but didn’t really care one way or another. But in this random indie she positively shines. It seems like the character was tailor made for her (or maybe that’s a telltale sign of a good actor), just a happy meeting of a perfect role and a perfect talent.
   So…meet Doris. A shy, quirky lady of a certain great many years, most of which were spent working a mindless data entry job and taking care of her mother. Now her mother is dead and Doris’ newfound freedom and a fortuitously timed life improvement seminar inspires her to live out loud some, go for what she wants. And what she wants is John, a new coworker, a much, much younger coworker, played by an indeed very lovable Max Greenfield of The New Girl fame.
    Doris and John do actually strike a connection through shared love of electronic music (watch Sally Field dance, it’s awesome). But of course it’s fraught with misunderstandings, most interactions are, even the ones where people aren’t as different as these two.
  The clever thing about this production is that it’s ever so nicely spoofs the millennials and its obsession with quirk, which is in their cases mostly contrived and in Doris’ case absolutely genuine, and so in a strange way she fits right in. Whether she belongs there or not is, of course, another story.  But what a charming story it is.
   It’s difficult to strike that right balance in a what is essentially a romcom but this one worked really well, it was lovely and genuinely funny. Realistic but not depressingly so, hyperbolic but not ridiculously so. Just right.
  And sure, it helps to have a well written script to go off and a really excellent cast of supporting actors who all seem to be having a blast, but the main attraction here is Doris, realized to perfection by Sally Field. And did you know how old Sally Field is? She’s 74 now and must have been 69 or so at the time and she looks freaking great. And natural. Sure, the hair has got to be dyed, but otherwise what an impressively good job she’s done aging, all grace, no plastic. There’s a surprisingly young energy to her that plays really well here. Doris has missed out on so much of her life, so she didn’t get a chance to properly mature and now she’s a sort of grown kid or a not entirely mature adult. This is, in a way, her coming of age story, however belated.
   So yeah, Doris, a lady well worth meeting in this absolute charmer of a movie.