Sally Field is back—sort of.

Though the Oscar winning actress Sally Field has featured in some popular feature films over the last twenty years, Hello, My Name is Doris is her first feature film leading role since Eye for an Eye in 1996.

Her list of supporting roles is still impressive, from historical bio-pic Lincoln to blockbuster The Amazing Spider-Man, and children’s film Homeward Bound.

It’s always great to see her in feature films and great to see her back in the lead.

Hello, My Name is Doris is a very good film to add to her leading lady resume.

Her so-called ‘sixty-something’ (though I couldn’t tell) character, Doris, is well-written and very well acted.

If you remember Norma Rae and Places in the Heart, you’ll see in My Name is Doris why Sally Field won Oscars for those films.

Leading lady

She’s in top form as an office worker, who has been living with her mother, when her mother dies. It’s not clear if loneliness is a cause of her becoming attracted to a new worker, who is quite a bit younger than her.

It is clear she is becoming receptive to motivational speakers and romance novels with the co-worker imagined on the cover.

The motivational speaker, played by Peter Gallagher, is persuasive and eggs her on to pursue what’s possible.

It seems romance with a younger man is possible so off she goes in her awkward way to make him notice.

This is her, with some persuasion, doing something for herself her the first time in her life.

Good film

The development of the story has ebbs and flows and surprises which lyrically hold the story together.

It all comes together to create a winsome comedy and all the characters add something to the whole.

Doris takes center stage as a disarming character which is comfortable to watch.

Field seems to be in her element playing Doris—real, raw, human, vulnerable, hurt, and endearing, with some moments harking back to why the Oscars like her so very much.

Max Greenfield should also be mentioned as the young man who plays Doris’ love interest. In fact all the young people in this film should be mentioned because they are lovely.

John (Max Greenfield) has all the kind (and cool) moves to handle Doris and we like him because of that. Doris shouldn’t be treated any other way.

Hello, My Name is Doris is a depiction of what older single woman may go through, especially when they want more out of life.

What might have been a horrible experience—the older woman’s crush and the associated shaming and ridicule—does not have to be as bad as it may seem, as Doris finds out. The key was finding good, supportive people through this potentially embarrassing situation.

Hello, My Name is Doris is not a tawdry romance, but a sweet-natured kind of one.

* * * * (out of * * * * * stars)

---

Warnings—brief coarse language

Notes: Starring: Sally Field (Doris), Max Greenfield (John), Tyne Daly (Roz); Michael Showalter (Director), Laura Terruso and Michael Showalter (Screenwriters); from the short film Doris & The Intern