Hello, My Name is Doris [2016]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (3 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
ChicagoTribune (K. Walsh) review
RogerEbert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (K. Rife) review  


Hello, My Name is Doris [2016] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Michael Showalter along with Laura Terruso based on her short film Doris & the Intern [2011]) is a generally well-meaning / fun "fantasy" about 60-something, never-been-married-'cause-she-stayed-to-take-care-of-her-mother Doris (played marvelously by Sally Field) who falls for a very attractive 20-something young man John (played by Max Greenfield) at her job. 

And yes, the obvious question / double-standard arises: WHY would the possibility of a relationship between 60-something Doris Miller and 20-something John Fremont be "a fantasy" / preposterous, WHILE a relationship between Sean Connery's 60-something character and Catherine Zeta-Jones' late-20/early 30-something character in Entrapment [1999] somehow be "plausible"?

But then this would then seem to be a good part of the point of the film: why said double standard?  The other point of the film would be, perhaps, nicer -- a reminder that, as an old Servite friar reminded me a number years ago, "Yes, we may age, but we also never forget completely what it's like to be 21 ..."   

Anyway, frumpy sixty-something Doris from Staten Island, who works in a cubicle in some not particularly large advertising firm in Manhattan falls for "the hot new guy" who comes over to work at the firm as some of an "art design manager" and much ensues ...

AGAIN, THIS IS A GENERALLY VERY NICE AND FUN MOVIE ... even as it asks us uncomfortable questions: (1) Why would such a "romance" be "impossible"?  and (2) why would such a "romance" be "necessary" to begin with?  Why can't we just come to accept our age with grace? Yes, do we have to be 21 (or 35) forever?

Fun film!


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