Review of Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015) by Roy H — 30 Mar 2016

What a joyful gem of a film! Sally Field has always been a joy to watch on screen but here she is transformative in a way I have not seen her before. Often times, I forgot she was Field until a dinner scene towards the end where she puts her hair down in the normal Sally Field look but she really transforms to the essence of Doris.

I found myself connecting with her character many times in different ways (yes, I'm a 60 year old woman inside). She captures the feeling of being head over heals for someone she knows it out of her league and way to young for her and how awkward you can be around that person and the fact that they even acknowledge your existence is amazing by itself.

But Field and the director also capture the inner turmoil of a hoarder in a really outstanding scene where a doctor, her brother, and sister in law come to help clean out her house and she just snaps at the difficulty to let go of items that are sentimental in a way that you just can't explain to others without sounding like a crazy person.

That scene also particular was edited perfectly to capture that feeling. Max Greenfield is charming as always but really proves that he can be a leading man as he has been a supporting scene stealer on New Girl for the past few years.

His chemistry with Field is perfect. Beth Behrs is really great as Greenfield's love interest proving she has more in her than a sitcom performance like 2 Broke Girls. I would be interested to see her in more movies in this type of role.

The always great Stephen Root is really strong as Doris' brother and Wendi McLendon Covey is great as his wife. Tyne Daley steals the show in every scene she is in as the voice of reason friend of Doris.

Natasha Lyonne, Kumail Nanjiani, and Peter Gallagher also have great small parts. The screenplay is wonderful and even though it can fall in rom com and out of my league stereotypical tropes, it over comes them with the performances and the realism of what Doris is going through.

I loved the costume design for Doris particularly and great original music from Jack Antonoff. I really really REALLY loved this movie and hope people give it a chance. I keep my best of the year lists running on my iPad all year long and Sally Field is the first Best Actress in my contenders list and I have a feeling she'll be staying up there or near the top for the whole year.