A superb performance from Sally Field makes this a movie that many will find enchanting. In Hello, My Name is Doris, Field (Norma Rae, Places in the Heart) plays a role that reinforces just how good an actor she is (after all, she did win two Oscars).
Doris Miller (Field ) is a classic outsider, socially isolated by her temperament as well as her responsibilities for her ailing mother. At her workplace, longtime co-workers have been replaced by younger, hipper colleagues who view her as a vaguely amusing relic. When her mum dies, she is adrift. For the first time in her life, she is answerable to no one but herself. Doris’ head is turned by a handsome new co-worker, John Fremont (Max Greenfield – television’s New Girl) – whom she is initially forced into close quarters with as she travels up a lift with him. He turns out to be the firm’s new art director. Then, a smoothly delivered, cliché driven, self-help seminar orated by Peter Gallagher (American Beauty) inspires Doris to act upon her instincts … and take a chance on love. So, Hello, My Name is Doris is a witty and compassionate late-life coming-of-age-story.
Based upon a short film by Laura Terruso, Hello, My Name is Doris was written by Terruso and Michael Showalter and directed by Showalter. Doris Miller, the heroine of Hello, My Name is Doris, began her cinematic life in an eight-minute film called Doris and the Intern, written and directed by then film student Terruso. Showalter first viewed the short while teaching film at Terruso’s alma mater, the prestigious New York University Tisch School of the Arts. He was immediately struck by the budding writer and director’s inventive sense of humour and fresh outlook on love. “It was a very funny, very sweet, offbeat little film about a middle-aged office worker named Doris who marches to the beat of her own drummer,” Showalter remembers. “She develops a crush on a teenage intern and when she realises that it’s unrequited, she steals his bicycle.”
Showalter, one of the creators of Wet Hot American Summer, as well as a prolific actor, director and producer, is always on the lookout for new and original comic voices. “The character of Doris and her story were new and different,” he says. “To begin with, there aren’t a lot of movies that have an older actress playing the comedic lead role. “She is an eccentric and, in a lot of ways, damaged person, but I also saw a great deal that I identified with and I think a lot of other people will, too.” Eight minutes had given Terruso barely enough time to introduce Doris to an audience, so Showalter and Terruso began developing the short into a feature film.
They opened up the story, exploring different scenarios as they got better acquainted with Doris and her world. “Laura and I spent a lot of time talking about where we could take this,” the director says. “We expanded and refined the story line, added some other characters and spent a lot of time exploring Doris’ life.” Eventually the pair developed a backstory for Doris that included a lifetime of taking care of her ailing mother and what Showalter likes to call “a clutter habit.” The Miller family home on Staten Island is a living museum, packed with “treasures” that Doris and her mother have accumulated over the years. Let’s face it, Doris is a hoarder.
Somewhat stunted emotionally, bookish, bespectacled and often bewildered by simply social interactions, Field manages to capture Doris’ offbeat charm perfectly. We watch as she is transformed and energised, literally charming person after person with whom she comes into contact. She is such a dominant force that I don’t think it is a stretch to call this one of the performances of Field’s career. Not only does her character drive the story, but in the process she mesmerises us – the audience. We follow her every movie with a mix of amusement and cheering for the underdog, all the while believing that at some point Doris’ infatuation will come crashing down around her. But to find out whether it does, you will just have to buy a ticket to Hello, My Name is Doris.
After relocating from Malibu to New York City, John is just finding his footing. “He is starting anew in many ways,” says Greenfield. “He doesn’t really know anybody. On the surface, he seems uber-confident and on top of things, but there is a part of him that is the new kid in school. He’s looking for a connection and finds one in Doris.” John’s beaming smile and caring and considerate manner see him create the perfect foil for Doris.
John, and all the secondary characters in the film, have been carefully crafted so they have their own, unique voices, something I also loved about the movie. A delightful, charming, quirky, fantasy love story that weaves its magic for 95 percent of the running time, unfortunately the ending let me down and all the more so because it was so good for so long. I was left thinking the co-writers simply didn’t know how they should finish their script and what they left us with would not have been how Doris acted because it wasn’t in keeping with her character. I was all the more disappointed because I really cared.
But please do definitely see Hello, My Name is Doris because the lion’s share is pitch perfect and Sally Field delivers a tour de force. Rated M, it scores a 7½ out of 10.
Director: Michael Showalter
Cast: Sally Field, Max Greenfield, Stephen Root, Peter Gallagher
Release Date: 9 June 2016 (limited)
Rating: M
Alex First
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television