THE MEDDLER (Lorene Scafaria). 100 minutes. Opens Friday (May 6). See listing. Rating: NNN
Doting mother Marnie (Susan Sarandon) could have turned out to be ridiculous. She’s way out of control – befriending her Apple service guy, taking on the role of wedding planner for a bride she barely knows, calling her kid 20 times a day. But writer/director Lorene Scafaria’s smart script makes the film more funny than outright mocking.
Rose Byrne plays her daughter with all the right exasperation, and J.K. Simmons, playing a nice guy for a change, is on board as an ex-cop who’s drawn to Marnie. But everything works because of Sarandon’s fine performance – sometimes nuanced, sometimes over the top – as a woman filling up her life with extraneous people so she won’t have to deal with her grief over the death of her husband.
The Meddler feels a tad schematic, and nothing about the ending is surprising. But the witty script and a rare all-out comic turn by Sarandon make this film very entertaining.
Read an interview with Susan Sarandon in this article.
