Hello, My Name Is Doris

Hello, My Name Is Doris
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Showalter
Produced by	Daniel Crown Kevin Mann Riva Marker Jordana Mollick Daniela Taplin Lundberg
Written by	Michael Showalter Laura Terruso
Starring	Sally Field Max Greenfield Beth Behrs Wendi McLendon-Covey Stephen Root Elizabeth Reaser Natasha Lyonne Tyne Daly
Music by	Brian H. Kim
Cinematography	Brian Burgoyne
Edited by	Robert Nassau
Production company	Haven Entertainment Red Crown
Distributed by	Roadside Attractions Stage 6 Films
Release dates	March 14, 2015 (2015-03-14) (SXSW) March 11, 2016 (2016-03-11) (United States)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1 million[1]
Box office	$14.7 million[2]

Hello, My Name Is Doris is a 2016 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Michael Showalter from a screenplay by Showalter and Laura Terruso, about a woman in her 60s who tries to act on her attraction to a younger co-worker. It stars Sally Field in the title role, alongside Max Greenfield, Beth Behrs, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Stephen Root, Elizabeth Reaser, Natasha Lyonne and Tyne Daly. The film had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on March 14, 2015,^[3] and was theatrically released on March 11, 2016, by Roadside Attractions and Stage 6 Films.^[4]

Plot

Doris Miller (Sally Field) is a shy, eccentric 60-something woman, living alone following the death of her mother, whom she has lived with for her whole life. At the funeral, her brother Todd (Stephen Root) and his wife (Wendi McLendon-Covey) try to persuade her to sell the house, especially the possessions, as she is a hoarder and has a habit of keeping discarded furniture she finds on the street. Her only close friend is the fiery Roz (Tyne Daly), though she gets along with her granddaughter. On her way to work, where she has been working as a data entry worker for decades, she meets a younger co-worker John (Max Greenfield) who she is immediately infatuated with. Empowered and inspired by cliched self-improvement tapes, Doris decides to go after him.

Doris finds ways to get John's attention, though the attempts are frequently combined with daydream fantasies about a passionate love affair between them. With the help of her Roz's granddaughter (Isabella Acres), she makes a fake social media profile to find information about him, and discovers that he loves an electropop band that is planning a concert in the area. Doris buys a CD for the band, which gets John's attention, and when she attends the concert, she meets him and they spend time together. The band is intrigued by Doris and invites her backstage, and has a fun evening meeting young artists in the area. John tells her that he and his girlfriend recently broke up over text, and asks her about her love life. She reveals that she was engaged in the past, but when her fiance left for a job in Arizona, she had to decline in order to take care of her mother. When they part for the night, John gives her a friendly kiss goodnight, and Doris is in love.

John is distracted for the next week, and Doris discovers that he has a girlfriend, Brooklyn. Though Brooklyn is friendly and charming, and John likes her, Doris is devastated. She spends the night drinking wine, and in a drunken fit of anguish, she post a comment on John's social media wall while using her fake profile, posing as a scorned young woman whom he had a torrid love affair with. The next morning, Todd arrives with her therapist, planning on decluttering Doris's house, but when his wife tries to throw out a pencil Doris stole from John, she angrily throws them out of her house. Todd tells her that he's disappointed in her, and she retorts that he was never around when their mother needed help. He says that it's what worked out best for his success, and she tells him that she could have had those opportunities, too.

At work, Brooklyn arrives and has a fight with John before breaking up with him; Brooklyn tells Doris later that she had seen the comment on his wall and accused him of cheating on her, and she admits that she was cheated on in the past. After work, John tells her about the incident and invites her to his Thanksgiving for friends. She agrees, and when he asks her if she'd ever be interested in dating a younger man, she assumes that he is interested in her.

Roz tells Doris that she's deluded and that she's making a huge mistake by going after John, but an infatuated Doris refuses to listen. She dresses up and goes to the Thanksgiving party, where she meets John's uncle, who is clearly interested in her. During the party, she asks to talk to John in his bedroom. While trying to come onto him, she reveals that she's always liked him and that she was the one to put up the comment that drove him and Brooklyn apart. Upset, John rebuffs her, shocked that his friend would break him up with a girlfriend he was so fond of. When a flustered Doris asks him what he meant by asking her if she was interested in younger men, he admits he was trying to set her up with his uncle, who is a decade younger than Doris -- thus, a younger man. A hurt Doris leaves and invites Roz over for comfort.

Doris invites her therapist over to declutter her house, and she succeeds in cleaning her house. She also quits her job, and says goodbye to John before she leaves. The two end on good terms, and when Doris goes to the elevator to leave, John calls her name and races out of his office, telling her that he really is interested in her, and wants to sincerely begin a relationship with her. After they kissed, it's revealed it was the last one of Doris's fantasies, and alone, she enters the elevator to leave. After hesitating, John calls out her name and runs toward the elevator for real, but Doris lets the doors close.

Cast

Production

On April 18, 2014, Max Greenfield was cast in the male lead role.^[5] On May 28, 2014, it was announced that Sally Field would play the title character, and on the same day Beth Behrs was also cast.^[6] On June 27, 2014, Natasha Lyonne, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Kyle Mooney, and Kumail Nanjiani were announced as part of the cast.^[7] On July 11, 2014, YouTube star Anna Akana was cast as a web blogger whose attention is piqued by Field’s character.^[8]

Release

The film had its world premiere on March 14, 2015, at South by Southwest.^[3] Shortly after it was announced Roadside Attractions had acquired distribution rights to the film.^[9] It was later revealed that Stage 6 Films would co-partner on the domestic release, and release the film internationally.^[10] The film also screened at the Montclair Film Festival on May 1, 2015.^[11] The film was theatrically released on March 11, 2016, in a limited release, before opening in a wide release on April 1, 2016.^[2]

Reception

Hello, My Name Is Doris received positive reviews from film critics. It holds an 83% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 92 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The critical consensus reads: "Hello, My Name Is Doris is immeasurably elevated by Sally Field's remarkable performance in the title role, which overpowers a surfeit of stereotypical indie quirk."^[12] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 63 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[13]

Joe Leydon of Variety gave the film a positive review, writing "Sally Field keeps the movie on an even keel, for the most part, with an adroit and disciplined lead performance that generates both laughter and sympathy, with relatively few yanks on the heartstrings. Audiences of a certain age might respond warmly, provided they are stoked by savvy marketing and favorable word of mouth."^[14] Eric Kohn of Indiewire.com also gave the film a positive review, a B+, writing ""Hello, My Name is Doris" effectively conveys the cruel ambivalence of an ageist society, and despite its formulaic ingredients, the movie responds to that setback with Field's exuberant, virtuoso turn providing the ultimate critical response."^[15]

Accolades

References

External links

• Official website
• Hello, My Name Is Doris at the Internet Movie Database