Thirty-something-year-old Lori (Rose Byrne) is trying to get over being dumped by her movie star boyfriend, and if truth be told she is feeling more than a bit sorry for herself. She is also on tenterhooks waiting to see if the new TV Show she has written gets picked up by the Networks. Therefore the very last thing she needs right now is her mother right up in her face proffering unlimited unsolicited advice day and night. The only fact that makes the situation bearable for her …… and for us too ….. is this rather cliched well-meaning busybody character is played by the wonderful Susan Sarandon.
She plays Marnie a dyed-in-the-wool Brooklynite who was widowed last year and so decided to resettle and establish a brand new life in L.A. to be close to Lori. She’s bored and frustrated and like a fish out of water in California with no friends of her own, so when Lori ups and leave town to film her show’s pilot, Marnie transfers all her attention to Lori’s friends. Luckily most of them are happy to take advantage of her largesse as she gives them extravagent gifts, and assuming the role of surrogate mother. she even picks up the entire tab for a lesbian wedding.
She hasn’t given up phoning Lori every hour on the hour with never ending monologues of her uneventful day, even though she always has to relate this to a machine as Lori never answers her calls. Lori suggests that she tries going to her therapist, an idea she only follows through on so that she can try and probe the woman to see if she knows what Lori is up too in her life.
When the tables are turned and Marnie is actually the center of another person’s attention, she panics especially when it is men who are venturing towards asking her out on a date. She is just not ready to move on with the next stage of her life, even though that is exactly what she is trying to force Lori too. It takes the persistence of a retired cop (J.K. Simmons) who is eventually allowed to get close enough to Marni so that he can actually start to peel off some off her protective layers she has piled on since her husband has died and now that she thinks her daughter has no time for her.
The warm, funny and witty movie written and directed by Lorene Scafaria is obviously a vehicle for Sarandon who adds style and substance to a project that without her star power would otherwise have ended up on the small screen instead. She never fails to keep us both liking and sympathizing with her potentially very annoying character even though we probably aught not too. Marnie just wants a second chance at finding happiness for herself and for everyone else, it’s just that she has no real idea of how to go about this.
As in the recent case of Sally Field’s new movie Hello, My Name in Doris, there are fewer and fewer starring roles for actresses of a certain age, and so when they do come along, they are grabbed enthusiastically with both hands. The fact that despite the Studio devoting very few resources to promoting ‘Doris’ it still became a sleeper hit proves that there is still a demand for movies like this and The Meddler.
