COMIC DRAMA; 1hr 27min
STARRING: Sally Field, Max Greenfield
Waiting game: de Laâge (left) and Binoche
Doris Miller (Field), a data-entry operator of a certain, fading age, seems resigned to a slow and spinsterish death of hoarding, invisibility and unfortunate hair. But no: her stars re-align with an electrifying blaze when an attractive, easy-going young art director (Greenfield as John Fremont) starts work at her Manhattan office. Doris is besotted right off the bat, especially after a hokey motivational speaker (Peter Gallagher) convinces her that the word impossible is really "I'm possible" flipped over. Next stop is a fake Facebook account to befriend the unsuspecting John, then a zhooshed-up Doris is off to a gig of his favourite band where she has the time of her newly awakened life.
Unlike Doris's clear-eyed best friend, Roz (Tyne Daly, zesty as lemon tart), you cheer her on through every wobbly step of director Michael Showalter's moving, funny and confronting chapter of accidents. Not only is Doris an adorable, daydreaming mouse in sore need of her inner roar, but she's Sally Field adorable, as well. Hesitant, vulnerable and unfulfilled, she yearns all the same with reckless fierceness for what the dictates of time would deny her.
