Doris is in her sixties and about to experience life on her own for the first time, after her mother passes away. Attending a self-help seminar this inspires her to very wrongly pursue Jack a much younger co-worker.
Every once in a while a film comes along that makes you feel so incredibly sad and so incredibly happy through out. This is one of those films, where you become very involved about the main character in this case Doris. She never really does anything wrong, she just wants people to really like her. Having given up any chance of a life to look after her mother and stay living with her you cannot help but feel ultimately sorry for her. This feeling is built up even more when her selfish brother and his wife just want half of the house she has always called home.
Thrown in some funny moments with her best friend Roz and being trained in online social media by a teenager and you have a very interesting 90 minutes worth of a film. As she plays over moments in her head of how she wants everything to go, come on we can all really relate to that. Becoming friends with Jack after finding out some music that he likes and heading to the gig, entering a totally new world with much younger people who fully accept and embrace her into the group. Now that was what I found reassuring, no matter what age you find yourself at that you will be accepted into something new, that is a very important and key message.
Sally Field is outstanding and pretty much the only actress who could have pulled this off, with the wacky dress sense and plenty of moments to show off her acting skills. Obviously we do get her having a breakdown scene, but if that didn’t happen then it would be like she wasn’t even in the film to begin with right?
It gives us a chance to look at what loss can do to a person and different ways to try to channel and deal with that. Throwing yourself into different things is certainly one of them, leaving your oldest friend to do this however not the best idea in the world. But if that person really cares about you they will stand by your pretty mental moments. Another important message that can be taken from this film, which I do believe will be very under watched.
It really is a film that made me feel so sad and sorry for the character, actually not just sad but upset. Which I know sounds rather crazy, but I was emotionally involved. That does show that the film therefore works on some level as I actually cared. As we see the Doctor who is supposed to be helping, Jack who takes things to a different level and then still having friendships that work. It also makes you not want to become a Doris, alone that late in life. Well done to Sally Field, showing that Hollywood can have older leading ladies!
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