Film Review: The Meddler

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“The Meddler” is quite the peculiar film. It has the recipe for a dysfunctional family drama, with Lori (Rose Byrne) having to deal with her well-meaning but overbearing mother, Marnie (Susan Sarandon). Both are reeling from the loss of the father of the family, with Lori having the extra baggage of a devastating breakup. She’s alone in Los Angeles, which is how she’d like to keep it. Unfortunately for her, her mother uproots from Brooklyn to live near her daughter, constantly leaving voicemails seemingly every ten minutes or so. As the film opens, we’re certain where things are heading.

Yet, “The Meddler” isn’t a dysfunctional family drama. It has those elements spliced in, but its main agenda is to be a lighthearted comedy. One that deals with serious issues, but addresses them in an uplifting manner. Most surprising is that Lori isn’t our protagonist, but merely a supporting character. The real protagonist is the meddler herself, Marnie.

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We spend the majority of the film with Marnie, played impeccably by Susan Sarandon. The casting department deserve a raise for this choice, as anyone of lesser value would’ve sunk the film. Arguably more deserving of that praise is Lorene Scafaria, who wrote and directed Marnie with warmth and humanity, not contempt. Marnie is the type of person who everyone says they’d love to have as their mother, but her actual children feel she’s a burden. She’s a caring individual, almost too caring to the point of obliviousness. She sees the world in rose-colored glasses and can’t grasp the concept that a positive outlook isn’t always the solution to life’s drawbacks.

For instance, Marnie can’t comprehend the fact that her daughter needs space. She doesn’t take the hint from her daughter not returning her dozens of calls, naively thinking she’s too busy working. When Lori tries to set boundaries, she takes offense to this. No argument ensues, as that’s not Marnie’s prerogative: she simply walks away and into someone else’s life. Mind you, she still calls Lori and leaves never-ending voicemails detailing her every move, which we cleverly hear as narration. She even tries to convince Jacob (Jason Ritter), Lori’s ex-boyfriend, to get back together with her, clueless to the fact that she’s leaping over boundaries.

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With her daughter pushing her away, Marnie confides in helping others. She volunteers at a local hospital, taking care of an elderly woman who she stumbled across. She not only convinces a young Apple employee to go back to school, but drives him to class every other night and helps him study. She even pays for an extravagant wedding for two of Lori’s friends because, in her eyes, she has her husband’s money and would want to spend it on love. We begin to notice she’s feeling guilt over having the money and feels empty without helping others. If you didn’t notice that, Scafaria conveniently introduces a therapist into the mix who spells this out for the audience. The introduction of the therapist was clever: Marnie speaks to her daughter’s therapist as a way of understanding her daughter (once again not understanding boundaries), inadvertently creating her own sessions. The execution of the therapist was a bit forced.

Scafaria does run into some issues in her directorial approach. Her direction tends to meander at times, though it’s digestible considering it complements Marnie’s meandering through life. What isn’t always digestible is the comedy set pieces. Instances where Marnie eats a bag of marijuana to avoid getting caught by the police or assaults Michael McKean after he tries to make a move feel out of place, inducing groans not laughter. These are thankfully far and few between, with an abundance of the humor coming from organic situations. There’s a hysterical moment involving a pregnancy test that is funny because of how real the moment feels.

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What looked to be the biggest misstep of the film turned out to be one of the film’s highlights, that being Marnie’s romance with Zipper (J.K. Simmons). It feels a bit forced at first, but Sarandon and Simmons generate so much chemistry that it works. Helping is that Scafaria walks on eggshells when orchestrating their budding romance and I’m not referring to the fact that Zipper has chickens for pets. Marnie isn’t quite ready for a relationship, running away from anything that closely resembles one. She relegates Zipper to the background, but his charm slowly wins her over. One could pick apart how clichéd their relationship is, but it feels earned by film’s end.

There are many moments in “The Meddler” that feel clichéd, but are forgiven because of how delightful the film is. And trust me, I didn’t expect to be so delighted by “The Meddler,” especially when I discovered that it’d be a lighthearted romp from the point of view of the meddlesome mother. Yet the film works because of Scafaria’s tender touch. In another person’s hands, Marnie piecing together that her daughter is writing a television show about her meddlesome family would feel hackneyed; here, it feels touching. The film overall could’ve felt hackneyed, yet it rarely ever does. Much like Marnie, it’s a sublime experience despite its minor flaws.

Final Rating: B+