Synopsis
With a new iPhone, an apartment near the Grove, and a comfortable bank account left to her by her beloved late husband, Marnie Minervini has happily relocated from New Jersey to Los Angeles to be near her daughter Lori, a successful (but still single) screenwriter, and smother her with motherly love. But when the dozens of texts, unexpected visits, and conversations dominated by unsolicited advice force Lori to draw strict personal boundaries, Marnie finds ways to channel her eternal optimism and forceful generosity to change the lives of others - as well as her own - and find a new purpose in life.
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Cast
- Susan SarandonMarnie Minervini
- Rose ByrneLori Minervini
- J.K. SimmonsRandall Zipper
- Cecily StrongJillian
- Jerrod CarmichaelFreddy / Fredo
- Michael McKeanMark
- Jason RitterJacob
- Billy MagnussenBen
- Lucy PunchEmily
- Sarah BakerElaine
Recommendations
- 83
IndieWire
The charm of The Meddler isn't the kind that benefits from big pushes forward in narrative or massive plot movements, but it revels in heart-warming humor, vibrant characters and what's clearly a deep affection for its story. - 80
Time Out
With a plot that plays like a string of incidental encounters, The Meddler could easily have felt like a glorified sitcom. But its heroine’s grief, her goodness and her complicated relationship with her daughter all feel so lived-in and true that the film stays grounded. - 75
Entertainment Weekly
Her character, reportedly based on writer-director Lorene Scafaria’s own mother, isn’t drawn with any particular depth or nuance (and the broad New Yawk accent Sarandon tries on is about as authentically Brooklyn as a Sara Lee bagel). - 75
The A.V. Club
Here Scafaria makes nice use of her widescreen frame, and cuts the movie together crisply—a lot of the jokes actually come from the cuts, and the way they punctuate the often pitch-perfect dialogue. - 70
Screen Daily
Apart from being a series of comic vignettes, The Meddler is also framed partially as a romance, and a very endearing one at that. - 70
Variety
With no car chases or artificial villains to get in the way, and no treacly contrivances to force unearned emotions, the bright, vaguely sitcom-styled movie is free to make audiences feel good on its own genuine terms. - 67
The Playlist
While slight, the film’s genuine feeling and overall comedic consistency has enough breezy charm to make it go down easy and pleasurably. - 60
The Guardian
The ultimate reason why so much of this works is down to Sarandon herself. She sells the comic side as well as hitting all of the emotional beats.
