Hello, My Name is Doris
Feminist Rating: ♀ ♀ ♀ ♀
Overall Rating: ✮✮✮
In Hello, My Name is Doris, Sally Field plays an adorable little lady named Doris whose mother has recently passed away after she dedicated her entire adult life to taking care of her. Now she’s found herself in a rut. She’s a hoarder because she’s clinging to the notion that things will magically change one day but they never do. But hope of change finally comes when a new guy has come to work at her office. Doris, a lover of campy romance novels falls head over and heels and does just about whatever it takes to get his attention. He finally does take notice but not until after she’s successfully stalked him on social media to find out what he likes and what music he listens to. She finally decides to take action in her life and it propels her into a new life. She finds approval in a group of millennials who are charmed by her quirky style.
It’s been a long times since Sally Field has been the star. Her career is like most Hollywood starlets, left forgotten on the wayside as soon as their youth fades away. However, what most people forget is that with age comes experienced performances and talent that has only matured with age and time. Field still has that bright spark of energy that propelled her into stardom in the first place and it is obvious that she has always belonged in the spotlight. Field sells the movie because in reality, the story line is pretty generic but she has the experience, talent, and star power to hold it all together.
All in all, the movie is pretty run-of-the-mill and the format is used in almost every other movie. Person A is a little quirky, not conventionally attractive, but has a heart of gold. Person A is attracted to Person B who is conventionally attractive, unaware of Person A’s feelings, and vaguely dim-witted. However popular this format is, it generally consists of Person A being male and Person B being female. The audience is roped into rooting for the male until he somehow persuades this seemingly unattainable female to fall in love with him and if she rejects him, well she’s just a self-absorbed jerk whose beauty is only skin deep because she failed to notice his honesty and charm. The genders aren’t usually switched because when they are, the Person A can come across to audiences as clingy, lonely, and desperate.
But why should it?
This format should not be limited to movies starring Kevin James. This formula has become so commonplace that now they have become a standard but switch the genders and you’ve got a quirky indie comedy with a limited release. This fact shows how desperately we need more female driven romantic comedies that depict its females as more than just a gorgeous career-driven woman who is so concerned with her work that she can’t see the perfect man who inevitably declares his love in the third act. Give me a break. What we need is more movies like this. Movies about emotional women, serious women, driven women, lazy women, angry women—we need women who exhibit a broad range of emotion.
Hello, My Name is Doris definitely passes the Bechdel test but it’s worth noting that Doris spends most of her time chasing after a guy. But a movie isn’t necessarily anti-feminist just because a female character is interested in a man. The important aspect depicted in the film is that Doris’s attraction to John is nuanced. She longs to live her life in a way that she never allowed herself to live in the past and being with John is the only way to get out of her rut. The relationship between them is interesting and different. Doris is also the coolest lady ever and everyone around her can see the spark she’s always had inside her. She’s not perfect, sure, but that’s what makes the film empowering. Doris is an intricate, flawed, interesting, and charming.
This movie has everything it needs to be a standard mainstream movie plus a lot of heart and some quality acting. It’s the sort of movie that girls should be enjoying with their gal pals instead of watching drivel such as Fifty Shades of Gray and How To Be Single that prey on women’s emotions instead of acknowledging and confirming them. Doris may not be perfect but it is in her imperfection that make her such a convincing and complicated female character and Sally Field seems right at home on the screen because she has always belonged in the spotlight.
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