From the trailer, Hello, My Name Is Doris may seem like one of those annoying movies with a quirky main character making a lot of tired jokes about age. In actuality, it's a sweet, moving comedy that speaks volumes about loneliness and wanting someone you can't have. Also note: Sally Field is the perfect person to get the ball rolling on normalizing women of a certain age as the main character in movies.
The film starts out at the funeral of Doris's mother, who she has lived with and taken care of her whole life. After her passing, she begins attaching emotional significance to inanimate objects and hoarding more and more. When she returns to work, she encounters a new co-worker John, played by Max Greenfield, in the elevator. He is nice to her and although he is 30 years her junior, she starts to fall for him immediately. The infatuation gives her something new with which to preoccupy herself. Doris begins crushing, HARD. She does all the things that every person in the 21st century does when they have a crush—like stalk their social media, start liking everything they like, and create a fake online persona to talk to them. We are all Doris!
It's Harold and Maude, without Harold's fascination with death—or Maude. There's a lot of well-done humor at the expense of millennial's and hipsters, but Hello, My Name Is Doris is anything but cliché. The movie takes an interesting, original, and hilarious approach of seeing the world through the eyes of a woman in her late 60s whose life isn't extravagant, just real.
Ashamedly, we're still in a time where when you have a May/December romance, particularly with a woman as the older half and with a younger man (whose feeling might not be mutual), you prepare yourself for a lot of cringeworthy moments and secondhand embarrassment. However, it's a testament to Sally Field's acting ability, warmth, and sex-appeal that none of that is experienced. You can't help but like her character, despite her annoying over-the-top outfits which you get over within the first 15 minutes. Sidenote: I can only guess the outfits were a way to frump down Sally Field because at 69 she is still so beautiful that you wouldn't believe Max Greenfeld wouldn't go for her. Don't believe me? Watch her makeout with Stephen Colbert in an interview on Wednesday.
More for female leads over 55. More Sally Field. More Doris.
Hello, My Name Is Doris comes out Friday, March 11th and will be playing at the Angelika and AMC Loews Lincoln Square.
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Courtney Bissonette is a New York based writer and improv comedienne. She writes primarily about movies, pop cultures and feminist heroes. She gets along best with old people. She has seen more old movies than your grandma, probably. Salt from Salt n Pepa once took her Trick'r Treating. You can follow her on instagram at @gddamnitcourtney or twitter @courttette
