After the death of her husband, a woman (Susan Sarandon) moves from New Jersey to Los Angeles to be closer to her daughter (Rose Byrne). She begins interfering with her daughter's life, but soon she meets other people who are more in need of her assistance, and she starts helping them.
You root for Marnie, even when it's clear why Lori struggles with her, and you hear her persistent voice in your head for a while afterward - reminding you, perhaps, to give your own mother a call.
Sarandon gives a committed and sometimes touching comic performance as a woman whose good intentions are inseparable from her desire to involve herself in the lives of others.
The premise, based in part on truth, may sound sitcommy, but Sarandon makes everything work. She's delightful.
Chesapeake Family Magazine
August 02, 2016
The Meddler feels more like a sitcom than a feature film, with a mix of drama and comedy that wraps up neatly. But with tidiness comes charm and poignancy.
As written and directed by Scafaria and performed by Sarandon, The Meddler is charming, tug-the-heart engaging stuff, that's as authentic in its emotions as it's entertaining in its filmmaking.
Scafaria's sympathetic intentions fall to simplistic setups and easy resolutions. She offers the characters no significant traits beside their functions in the action; the movie coasts on the charm of the actors, whom the director coaxes to mug ...
