ViewGuide

Created Apr 09, 2016 03:01PM PST • Edited Sep 07, 2020 06:14PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Baby Boomer date movies get no better than Hello, My Name Is Doris, about Sally Field’s senior-citizen foray into today’s millennial culture. Looking for love with a guy young enough to be her grandson, she charms and tickles in equal measure, reminding us that we like her, we really like her, now more than ever.

   Playing the Doris of the title, Field navigates her way through a metrosexual culture full of dismissive whippersnappers at the office, and shallow hipsters after hours. Much of the charm comes from how the too-cool-for-school Brooklynites eagerly accept her as a style seer, with Hello, My Name Is Doris playing like a hipster Being There during those precious scenes.

   Field towers above her supporting cast, proving again what a great star she is, even if Max Greenfield is suitably agreeable as her Prince Charming and Tyne Daly is wonderfully tender and tough as her BFF.

   Hello, My Name Is Doris deserves to make the acquaintance of any couple (or woman) over the age of forty. It’s a very pleasant meeting with an old friend who’s as vital as ever.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Sally Field is a star for the ages, with Doris Miller now one of her signature roles. She’s wonderfully vulnerable, plucky, wacky and adorable, just as she’s been since bursting on the scene several generations ago as The Flying Nun. How many moviestars can ably carry a movie at age 70? This one can and does.

   • Max Greenfield has a great grin. This TV star just made the jump to (supporting) moviestar.
   • Tyne Daly was a longtime great TV star on Cagney & Lacy. Her trademark combo of toughness/tenderness is in fine form here.
   • Isabella Acres jumps off screen as her granddaughter and Sally Field’s facebook-era dating advisor.
   • Beth Behrs jumps off screen as Greenfield’s ill-fated girlfriend.
   • Stephen Root is a great character actor, her as Sally Field’s put-upon brother.
   • Wendi McLendon-Covey is appropriately self-absorbed as his wife.
   • Elizabeth Reaser always jumps off screen, here as packrat therapist. Do they actually exist?
   • Millennial Officemates; Kyle Mooney, Natasha Lyonne, Kumail Nanjiani, Caroline Aaron, Rebecca Wisocky, Amy Okuda
   • Peter Gallagher is ideal as a self-help guru.
   • Don Stark makes a solid imprecision in one brief scene as an Uncle setup for a date.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    Hello, My Name Is Doris is a very strong showing for young filmmakers Laura Terruso & Michael Showalter. One assumes we’ll see more from each after this terrific contribution to the feature film world.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Great 4.0

    Baby Goya & the Nuclear Winters

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.5

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Salty 2.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.7

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0