The Mother of all mothers
The Meddler is a beautifully written and acted tale of unconditional, but intrusive, love
Sometimes unconditional love needs a few conditions slapped on it.
In The Meddler, Susan Sarandon and Rose Byrne star as a motherdaughter team living too much in each other’s pockets.
Sarandon is Marnie Minervini, a widow whose only child, Lori (Byrne), becomes her total focus, so much so that Marnie sells her house on the East Coast and moves to L.A. to be with her adult daughter.
Mom’s constant meddling is Olympic level. It includes looking at her daughter’s computer search history, signing on with the same psychiatrist, phoning and visiting constantly, hanging out with her daughter’s friends and generally oversharing and interfering — although always in an uptempo, generous, genuinely loving-and-concerned-parent kind of way. Marnie’s meddling is always aimed at helping, not just snooping.
Still, it’s a pain to be the snoopee, as Lori makes clear.
Under the humour, both Sarandon and Byrne’s characters struggle with serious issues related to love, grieving, commitment and loyalty. Marnie is mourning the loss of her husband; she is determined to help others, but eventually she has to learn to help herself move on from his death. Lori grieves for her father, even as she frets over a breakup with her ex, Jacob (Jason Ritter).
The Meddler is a very funny, very moving film based on director Lorene Scafaria’s own beloved mother — who really did sell her house in New Jersey and move to L.A. to be close to her daughter. Scafaria’s beautifully written story lets Sarandon play Marnie as a sometimes grating busybody and do-gooder — who is nonetheless so positive, keen to help and emotionally courageous that she never alienates the audience.
More importantly, she never skates into sitcom territory, either.
The character just seems readymade for Sarandon, three-dimensional and charismatic, and Sarandon’s work here does justice to the filmmaker’s writing. In their performances, she and Byrne manage that mad mix of love, friction, comfort and competition that’s all part of a mother and daughter relationship. The story illustrates, in a gentle fashion, how love gives people power over one another.
Marnie’s meddling is not limited to her daughter’s life.
She inspires her regular Apple store staffer (Jerrod Carmichael) to get more education, offers to pay for Lori’s friend’s (Cecily Strong) wedding and advises a potential love interest (J.K. Simmons) on his own parenting skills. This is a sunny little gem of a film.
The Meddler is being released to coincide with Mother’s Day; you can be sure that the film is far more emotionally rewarding than the sappy fake holiday.