I think of “meddlers” in a negative sense because that’s what I’ve come to think about meddling.

I observe that there seems to be different kind of meddlers.  One meddler advises someone on what they should do, which makes the other person feel their life is terrible.

Another meddler just hangs around and clings to the other person. They would help just to be involved in the person’s life.

I think of a meddler as someone who interferes in other people’s lives. In The Meddler (2016, USA) there seems to be an underlying cause.

Marnie’s (Susan Sarandon) “meddling” is more like she needs to connect with a human being after being widowed. So she reaches out.

Marnie, “the meddler”

In The Meddler, Marnie will do anything to get into her daughter’s life, to talk, to hang out. She’s like desperate.

Her daughter Lori is involved in the television industry and is trying to concentrate on her work. Lori is often angry at her mother’s advances.

But there seems to be an underlining cause, so says a therapist of Lori’s.  Marnie’s replacing the gap left in her life after being widowed.

But I saw beyond this so-called meddling and the therapist’s comments. Marnie is someone needing to connect with her daughter.

If her daughter won’t budge, she may just need to connect with someone else. Lori pulls away from Marnie because she has her life to focus on.

Marnie manages all right despite Lori being the big thing in her life.

Marnie gets into helping out with a wedding among other things and meets a guy in New York who is a retired policeman and rides a Harley. Their relationship is drawn out and takes it time. It’s ‘mature’, which is good.

Writer/director of The Meddler Lorene Scafaria does not take her meddler negatively, and played by Susan Sarandon, “the meddler” is likeable and Sarandon brings heart and subtle pain to the role.

In The Meddler, don’t expect intense ‘sword play’ between meddler and other persons. It’s a comedy.

The Meddler has been released to DVD on September 6, 2016, in the U.S.A.

Starring Susan Sarandon, Rose Byrne, and J.K. Simmons

Warnings–contains brief profanity