The Meddler (2015)

An aging widow from New York City follows her daughter to Los Angeles in hopes of starting a new life after her husband passes away.

Director:

Lorene Scafaria

Writer:

Lorene Scafaria

Stars:

Susan Sarandon, Rose Byrne, J.K. Simmons

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Susan Sarandon	...	Marnie
Rose Byrne	...	Lori
J.K. Simmons	...	Zipper
Jerrod Carmichael	...	Freddy / Fredo
Cecily Strong	...	Jillian
Lucy Punch	...	Emily
Michael McKean	...	Mark
Jason Ritter	...	Jacob
Sarah Baker	...	Elaine
Casey Wilson	...	Trish
Amy Landecker	...	Diane
Billy Magnussen	...	Ben
Megalyn Echikunwoke	...	Elise
Jo Jordan	...	Old Woman
Chance Bone	...	Movie Set AD

Storyline

An aging widow from New York City follows her daughter to Los Angeles in hopes of starting a new life after her husband passes away.

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Plot Keywords:

overbearing mother | lesbian wedding | mother daughter relationship | singing in a car | reference to atlantic city new jersey | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief drug content

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Production Company

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 June 2016 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Ma mère et moi

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,200,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$57,022, 24 April 2016, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$4,265,673, 19 August 2016

Company Credits

Production Co:

Anonymous Content, Stage 6 Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Lucy Punch and Casey Wilson were both pregnant during filming of the movie. Their pregnancies were written into the story.

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Goofs

When Zipper gives Marnie a ride on his Harley, they leave Du-Par's Restaurant in the Fairfax neighborhood heading north on Fairfax, then in the next shot are shown going north on Van Nuys Blvd. crossing Magnolia Blvd., which is over ten miles north in the San Fernando Valley. After that brief shot, they are shown sitting on a bench south of the Santa Monica Pier. Santa Monica is nearly due west of the Fairfax area. Unless the BMW dealership in Sherman Oaks paid for a product placement, there's no reason for them to have gone so far north.

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Quotes

Zipper: [Talking about his chicken] You wanna meet her?
Marnie: At your house?
Zipper: Well, she's been out at the bar most of the night but she's probably home by now.

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Connections

Referenced in The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: J. K. Simmons/Jane Krakowski/Chris Wallace (2016)

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Soundtracks

To Daddy
Written by Dolly Parton
Performed by J.K. Simmons

User Reviews

a weak script, full of clichéd melodrama, tired gags, and feigned sentimentality

A quarter of a century ago, Susan Sarandon co-starred in Thelma & Louise (1991), still ranked one of the best feminist movies of all time. It sits in the pantheon of cinema greats because of how it combined the finest traditions of storytelling and movie making, and over-arched it with powerful messages about important social issues. Since then, Sarandon's name has been associated with a string of high production-value movies and great entertainment. In this context of high expectations, The Meddler (2016) is a disappointingly mediocre story about an irritating mother who farcically acts-out suppressed grief trauma following her husband's death three years earlier.

Marnie (Susan Sarandon) is a widow desperately wanting to be relevant in other people's lives as a way to avoid dealing with her own. Her husband left her financially comfortable and she likes spending money on others, whether it's a bag of bagels or paying for the entire wedding of someone she barely knows. Her daughter Lori (Rose Byrne) has relationship issues of her own and welcomes her meddling mother like a blowfly on a summer day. If that sounds like a thin storyline, several comic sketches flesh it out: like Marnie's serial visits to that helpful guy in the Apple Store; being "earth mother" for a lesbian couple's wedding; deciding what to do with her husband's ashes; and the teen-awkward steps towards starting a relationship with an ex-cop called Zipper. The 'world's most embarrassing mother' theme is squeezed for all its worth, but the endless texting, unanswered messages, and unannounced drop-ins are more wearying for viewers than for this mother-daughter duo. While buried grief lies somewhere in the deeper layers of this film, it is largely ignored or at best explored with casual superficiality.

Sarandon's acting repertoire means she can handle anything from slapstick to pathos, but she can only work with what she is given. It is a weak script, full of clichéd melodrama, tired gags, and feigned sentimentality. She is on-screen for most of the movie, staying in character as a constantly irritating person who is painfully lacking in self-awareness, or just not particularly bright. If it was directed as a serious drama, the central premise of the story might have led to a satisfying movie. But as a corny comedy, it denigrates the seriousness of its deeper themes and is more squirm-in- your-seat embarrassing than laugh-out-loud kind of funny. While this conclusion may speak against the critical grain, it comes from someone who still has Sarandon on a pedestal.