Although Susan Sarandon’s views are in my periphery because I do not live under a rock, I have avoided anything about her personally so I can continue to love her professionally. (I voted for Bernie, but come on, a political apocalypse is not my idea of a good time.) Despite my adoration of the cast, when The Meddler hit the theaters, I had no interest in it. The Meddler sounded like the dud movie that you throw a famous middle-aged actress in when they can do so much more. I regret my decision!
The Meddler is about a mother of an adult daughter who is smothering her and needs her own life. When her daughter rejects her well-intentioned stalking, she decides to move on to her daughter’s friends and strangers. She has a bottomless wallet and is insanely generous with her time and money. Why would anyone want to watch a movie about an overbearing mother?
Because The Meddler is about creating a life after it was razed to the ground by completely ordinary, but nonetheless devastating, circumstances. Sarandon does an amazing job balancing her character’s instinctive defense of upbeat optimism to beat away the crushing loneliness and lack of identity. She basically leaves everything that she knows and latches on to her identity as a mother by manic nurturing to go through life on automatic, but she is numbly in denial and puts on a happy face. No one notices it because she makes everyone who is not her daughter feel loved and special. The Meddler gradually depicts when she tentatively begins to feel again and create a real life.
The Meddler is filled with tropes, but it cleverly avoids following completely through with them. The Meddler mostly earns any romantic twists or happy endings with perfect pacing and acting. My favorite part of The Meddler is how the messages left on the daughter’s voice mail are an unintentional audio journal. My least favorite part was not the fact that she decided to help the (black) Genius Bar employee, but the fact that his brother is a drug dealer, and then The Meddler basically makes drug use fun later. Constant movie tight rope is drug dealers or use by black people is a sign of criminality, but by white people, it is amusing and a sign that you are a free spirit.
Sarandon carries The Meddler, but I think that it is terrific that after years of great acting, J.K. Simmons is in great demand. Rose Byrne and the rest of the cast do a great job holding their own against the more seasoned greats in The Meddler.
The Meddler is everything that I wanted Hello, My Name Is Doris to be when I saw the trailer. The Meddler is about an older, single woman discovering the life that she wants and is must see viewing. If I could build a time machine and go back in time to pay for the movie ticket and eat butter popcorn, I would definitely put seeing The Meddler in the theater on my to do list.