So, just who is Doris? We immediately recognize her as Sally Field, veteran of many movies and TV shows, all the way back to her teen years as Gidget and one of the all time oddest TV shows, The Flying Nun. In this movie, she is Doris Miller, somewhere in her unflattering 60’s. She is doing some sort of data entry for a New York fashion company, as one of the employees left over from a corporate acquisition in that predatory industry. The movie begins with the funeral of Doris’s mother. Doris had lived with her mom up to the end, in a house on Staten Island, commuting by ferry into Manhattan each day. Oh, and, by the way, either Doris, her mother or both of them are hoarders. They live in a large house crammed with trivial junk that’s “important”. After her mom’s death, however, it is finally Doris’s moment to break free….sort of.
In addition to Doris’s change in status we also have a new fashion guru coming to work in the company. John Fremont (Max Greenfield) is a handsome, 30-something, likable, big-smile guy who meets Doris and is nice to her. Doris, a newly liberated woman, has an instant crush on John. She starts enhancing her look, which, to be true, is mainly weird, including regular wearing of two pairs of glasses at once and a strange wig, which looks pretty much like the strange, raggedy hair under it. After some relatively innocent responses by John, she starts to think he returns her attraction. Doris begins a one sided relationship with him that looks like some sort of relatively innocent stalking. Unfortunately for Doris, she also meets John’s more age-appropriate fashion model girlfriend, but she takes encouragement after a stormy in-the-office breakup. Whenever she sees John, she fantasizes what she wishes would happen to their “relationship”. Her relationship with John, as well as her position in the company get more entangled as John brings her into a promotional effort that brings Doris into his social life.
Meanwhile, the other subplot concerns Doris’s brother Todd (Stephen Root) and his harpy-wife Cynthia. They want to bring in a hoarder therapist to help Doris. Not surprisingly, we find that Todd is split in his motivations. He wants to help his sister, but also wants his part of the inheritance. Cynthia, on the other hand, doesn’t have any such family concern. She’s ALL about the inheritance. Is there a resolution to Doris’s romantic fantasies? What about her hoarding and her avaricious family? A lot of things are right on the edge for Doris.
A lot about this movie sits on an edge. It’s somewhere between funny, creepy and pathetic. Sally Field does an excellent job of conveying this. As a character, Doris is likable, eccentric and funny. As an enthusiastic, data-entering office geek and it’s hard to not like her. As a 60-something, who has a crush on a much younger, handsome, fashion guru, and as a hoarder and an innocent stalker, however, she’s pathetic. As an audience, we wish we hadn’t seen that side of her life since, after all, we all secretly want fairy tales to come true and we wish that Doris could reclaim some the years she spent single and hoarding with her mom.
My take on this film is that it’s a fairly weak plot and script, accompanied by an excellent performance by Sally Field. It’s the best I’ve seen her do since her fine portrayal of the mercurial Mary in Lincoln. As for the plot and script, that is serviceable but underwhelming. The jokes mainly work, but from about 5 minutes in, you know what’s going to happen and most of how it’s going to turn out. Most fairly tales are NOT true, including this one. About a quarter of the movie is the hoarder subplot and that part seems to be lifted verbatim from one of the episodes of the Hoarders TV show. I had the feeling that AMC should have gotten a line in the writing credits. The rest of the cast, as well as the production are adequate, John (Max Greenfield) is cute as is his girlfriend, but the rest of the film is mainly decent TV-style production. Establishing shots are in New York, but the rest of the movie could be anywhere, like probably a studio in Hollywood. 90% of the movie is Sally Field. That said, I bump it up one half star in deference to her performance. In general, however, it’s decently entertaining, but nothing else. If you’re short on cash this week, you might wait until you can stream it.
