Sixtysomething Doris (Sally Field) leads a rather dull single life in her late mother’s cluttered home on Staten Island. But she works in an office full of hip young people, and one of them, John (Max Greenfield), catches her eye. Through a series of misunderstandings and small kindnesses, Doris and John become buddies, enjoying some Brooklyn nightlife together. But when the oh-so-lonely Doris mistakes John’s friendliness for a burgeoning romance, things get awkward.
Michael Showalter directs this dramedy, and he can’t quite decide how silly this film wants to be. But it’s rare that the emotional life of any woman over 40 is ever portrayed on screen, so we should be grateful for small steps. Fields has fun playing the somewhat wacky Doris, and if the work veers into cartoonish obviousness occasionally, at least it lets Doris be who she is, in all her fumbling truth.
