Review of The Meddler (2016) by Pankaj P — 07 Jun 2016

When you go to see a movie like The Meddler, you know what you're getting yourself into. Movies like this with trailers like these and demographics like this are safe movies, through and through. The question instead is how effective a movie like this will be.

This movie happens to be more effective than comparable fare, thanks to its lead performance from Susan Sarandon and charm, but its sitcom sentimentality and subplots in the latter half are just noticeable enough to detract from the experience.

Sarandon plays a widow by the name of Marnie who constantly injects herself into her daughter Lori's (Rose Byrne) life. When she isn't with her daughter, Marnie is at The Grove, the Apple Store, or volunteering at a nearby hospital.

When Lori goes back to New York to shoot a television pilot, Marnie, desperate to help people, is forced to preoccupy herself with other people's lives. A movie like this lives or dies on its ability to milk charm from simple situations, and The Meddler does a really good job at that for a while.

The movie is written and directed by Lorene Scafaria--whose directorial debut was 2012's underrated Seeking a Friend for the End of the World--and she demonstrates her ability to illustrate a character's life, often times with a lot of innocent humor that works.

Marnie's regular hangouts, her daughter's house, her friends, and her interests are all clearly defined. They don't feel realistic because they're simplistic; they feel realistic because it's a well rounded demonstration of this character's life.

Sarandon brings so much sympathy to a role that could be a grating caricature of a senior citizen; the character's intentions are clear. As a contrast, Rose Byrne is great as always and helps ground the optimism of the film's protagonist with stressed and jaded worldview that her character has.

Where the movie starts to become a little rough around the edges is about halfway through. Sarandon's love interest, who goes by the name of Zipper (yes, Zipper) is mostly grounded by J. K. Simmons's work.

It feels like a stereotypical role written for Sam Elliott. His character has a mustache, raises chickens, is a retired police officer, divorced, and rides a Harley. The actors are what make this work, and I'll admit that I was drawn into the innocence of it all for a while.

But Scafaria's direction becomes increasingly idealistic and sitcom-oriented as the plots and subplots progress. The use of montages with sweet songs without irony make this movie start to fall into rental territory.

There are also some asides that don't contribute to the plot and could have be exorcised for the same of coherence, like a contrived scene where Marnie consumes a ton of pot and gets high as hell, or her helping an old woman at a hospital.

(Side note: what's with people thinking that's inherently funny to see old people get high? I'll See You in My Dreams did the same thing last year.) There's also one thing towards the end that Marnie does to Lori that's bizarre, putting a stressed character into a life-altering situation, and then the movie plays it off like a cute joke.

The Meddler has a solid first half and manages to wring joy out of situations that would be eye-roll-inducing with the wrong people in front of and behind the camera. Byrne and Simmons do good work, the latter making his character rightfully cute.

It's nice to see a movie that doesn't treat people over the age of six like they're semi-sentient blobs of sagging flesh, but the consistency and execution starts to decline at the hands of the writer/director with unnecessary scenes and subplots and some odd behavior from its main character.

And while I enjoyed myself for a while, it's its flaws that bring this just below the level of recommendation. 6.6/10, okay, one thumb down, average, etc.