For the most part, they don’t make movies for me anymore.
I hate CGI and stupid people, and it’s hard to find a movie that doesn’t feature one or both. Hard, but not impossible.
Hello, my name is Doris tells the story of a hoarder who falls in love with a younger man. It stars a 69 year old Sally Field and a 35 year old Max Greenfield. Wendi McLendon-Covey, Peter Gallagher, and Tyne Daly are also familiar faces. The rest of the cast was good, but this was really Sally Field’s movie.
I’m married to a hoarder and have strong hoarder tendencies myself. So when the scene rolls around where the unreasonable and heartless bastards come to her house and tell to throw all this crap in a Dumpster and burn it-I wanted Sally to go all Medieval on their asses. But this is a movie, so Sally just yells a little and cleans her house. The makers of Hello my name is Doris have clearly never watched an episode of A&E’s Hoarders.
But the hoarder aspect of the story is a fairly small part. The bulk of the story is about Sally coming out of her shell as she stalks a new employee at her place of work. Yes, I know, stalking never works in the real world but often turns out fine in movies. So we watch Sally as a 13 year old teaches her how to cyberstalk and tells her how to use the information she finds to real world stalk him. She has several Walter Mitty moments where she imagines being swept off her feet by her new love.
Tyne Daly was born a grumpy old lady and she basically plays the same person she has always played. It was good to see her again. Sally Field wears a lot of odd clothes and has the habit of wearing two pairs of glasses at the same time. It’s a good look for her. Max Greenfield goes about his business in total oblivion of Sally’s lust for his attention.
I laughed a lot while watching Hello my name is Doris. Being a bit of a self-help junkie, I had to laugh at Peter Gallagher’s cliché spouting Guru. The many times Sally tries to fit in with the hip and trendy younger people are funny. One scene shows Sally being confused by a fist bump. A running gag sees the Office Manager replace all the chairs with large rubber balls.
I like Hello my name is Doris. I liked it a lot.
