With an outstanding range, Sally Field terrifically enacts a poorly conceived character in Hello, My Name is Doris (2016), a pack-of-lies movie by Michael Showalter and Laura Terruso. Pack-of-lies? Yes: Doris is a bashful woman deeply silly enough to chase a much younger, good-looking man—one who is forever tolerant and understanding. Too, though frumpy, she holds her own among the young man’s lively young companions.
A waste of time, this. Launched by the idea that Doris is a naif who must learn a lesson, critic Alan Scherstuhl, though a slight fan of this flop, correctly asks: “What are we supposed to get from watching a naif learn a lesson we already know?”
