Publications
Partners
What it's about:
After sixty-something Doris loses her mother and goes to a self-help seminar to try and get the spark back into her flat lining life she starts to become obsessed with her younger co-worker. From there, things get very messy, for the character that Sally Field brings to life brilliantly.
What we thought:
When the movie started I felt the sadness that Doris (Sally Field) experienced losing her mother because of how the opening scenes are written and put together but through the course of the film I came to understand that Doris’ life is heartbreakingly tragic for a number of reasons other than that painful blow.
That being said, even though I felt her pain, some of the protagonist’s actions were hard to watch because she is very socially awkward. Even for someone in grieving. The thing that pulled me through the narrative, that is about self-discovery and acceptance in some ways, was the unrequited love storyline and how the two collided.
Her crush is named John, he is a hipster who loves electronic music and definitely doesn’t seem interested in her at first; the character is played by Max Greenfield who has starred in TV’s New Girl, for many years.
Greenfield delivers a good performance but sometimes comes across as a bit of a one dimensional background piece of arm candy. But that’s purely because Sally Field is the star. So much so that even when she has no dialogue she brings such light and shade to a woman, who needs a drastic change in her life, that I found myself blown away.
The real moment that I connected with the film though was when Sally Field’s character unpacks how she feels about losing the best years of her life taking care of her mother while her brother went out and did what he wanted to do.
You should go watch this movie if you want to see growing older from a new perspective.
