When Sally Field won her second Academy Award, for her performance as a struggling widow in the 1984 period drama Places in the Heart, she famously gave an open-hearted speech in which she effusively thanked Oscar voters for the clear sign of respect for her acting skills: “And I can't deny the fact that you like me. Right now. You like me!”

It’s a speech that’s unjustly ridiculed today for its guilelessness, and for its apparent revelation of Field’s insecurity. In a 2019 interview with the Washington Post, she clarified that the speech was actually “about the work,” and that she saw the award as an acknowledgment that she’d “succeeded in what I [had] been trying to do” as an actor. Basically, she was just being open and honest—and what’s so wrong with wanting to be liked, or likable? Likability can be refreshing, and many of Field’s best performances are undeniably charming—from her first major role as a spunky surfer girl in the ABC sitcom Gidget to her more recent turn as an eccentric, lovelorn office worker in the 2015 independent comedy film Hello, My Name Is Doris. Field brings this trademark affability to her latest role in a new Netflix film based on Remarkably Bright Creatures, the much-loved 2022 debut novel by Shelby Van Pelt. It premieres on May 8.

Field stars as Tova Sullivan, a 70-year-old woman in small-town Sowell Bay, near the Puget Sound in Washington state. In the book, Tova is grieving the recent death of her estranged brother, as well as that of her husband a few years before. She’s also still dealing with the trauma of the disappearance of her teenage son, decades earlier. At her part-time night job as a cleaner at the local aquarium, she befriends a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus (who narrates several chapters); she also counts a local grocer named Ethan Mack as a friend, and becomes close to Cameron Cassmore, who takes a temporary position at the aquarium; he’s on a quest to locate his biological father, whom he’s never met.

The story deals with some dark and difficult topics—particularly grief and loneliness—but there’s always sunshine behind these clouds. Most of the people in the story are refreshingly willing to help one another out: Tova’s longtime group of friends, dubbed the Knit-Wits, provide her unconditional love and support; Ethan offers the clearly struggling Cameron a free meal, just moments after meeting him; and Marcellus marvels at Tova treating him not as a curiosity, but as the remarkably bright creature he is. One may quibble that Marcellus’ narration is a bit too cute at times (“Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire?”), and that everyone’s problems are solved a bit too neatly at the story’s end—but it feels churlish to quibble too much. Van Pelt’s novel is just too gentle and pleasant and upbeat for that.

The film, directed and co-written by Olivia Newman (Where the Crawdads Sing), is very faithful to the text, and the performances only add to the story’s charms. Field is excellent as Tova, inhabiting her quirkiness and sadness with equal skill. Alfred Molina, in a fun bit of casting, narrates the wise Marcellus’ thoughts; the actor is perhaps best known for playing the operatic supervillain Doctor Octopus in two Spider-Man films, but his work is far more restrained here, and hits just the right tone. Irish actor Colm Meaney (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) does a fine job as the gossipy but generous Ethan—even if his Scottish accent is a bit shaky at times—and Lewis Pullman (Lessons in Chemistry) brings a welcome nervous energy to the part of Cameron, a troubled 30-something who gradually sees the value in letting other people in. It’s a movie designed to warm viewers’ hearts, to be sure, and in this it largely succeeds. One can’t help but appreciate a movie that’s essentially about kindness. Is it sentimental? Without a doubt. But that’s the point, and there’s an awful lot to like about that.

David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.