The Meddler (2015) Reviews

• Apple Commercial

  hytrefde2016-11-25

  The movie starts in an Apple Store where Susan Sarandon buy a new Iphone. She explains that the 64GB model is better than the 16GB one. After few minutes she is at a pre maman party, and gift the new mother with an iPad. She explains that it's a very good gadget, that you can install things on it, and the young mother wows very loud at the tablet. Next scene we are on an Apple store, where we can see the "genius" explaining to her how to zoom in and out. At the 15 minutes mark we are at her daughter's house, and on the bed we can see a Macbook. She try to look at the history on safari, but then the daughter comes, and takes the laptop away. If you want to see a 100 minutes Apple commercial, this movie is for you!

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• Perfect for People with Tiny Bladders

  kr986642016-06-20

  My darling wife, beloved as she may be, has one slight imperfection. Genetics has cursed her with a bladder about the size of a grape, or maybe a walnut at the most. Frequent movie goers that we are, we've perfected the drill. When (not if) she heads out to the restroom, I make note of where the plot was. Upon her return, I whisper into her ear what she missed, and generally throw in a little kiss, too. This was the first movie where upon her return, she didn't ask what she missed. We both knew before she left that she wouldn't miss anything. For the whole movie, not much happened. Just a lot of ploddingness, talk about feelings, and perhaps two chuckles. The trailer looked good, but it had all the funny bits. A great cast was wasted on this ho hum mess. I kept waiting for the movie to get better, but it never did. If only my watch had a turboboost option... On the bright side, if you have a nanobladder, this may be the perfect movie for you.

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• Cringeworthy product placement ruins the film.

  wiztwas2016-10-01

  If you are going to do product placement in a film then it needs to be subtle, this is up there with that terrible Tom Hanks film with the shipping company product placement or one of those "Mobile Phone" films form the 80's there was another film recently, that was based on a brilliant book, they changed a diary from a book to using a camera so they could do the product placement, it again ruined the film. The story itself was probably not as bad as the commercialisation of the film. I just wish that the distraction of bizarre elements, such as the mentioning of having purchased the places product in the initial call to her daughter, the befriending of the guy who helps her with her placed product and works in the placed product shop, the mentioning of the placed product web browser when searching the internet, her purchasing the placed product for the baby shower, her purchasing placed product for the chickens. This is the future of cinema, it is a commercial dressed up as movie, I think it is much more than one commercial to far. This is a ruined film. Thanks placed product. I know product placement is here to stay, but it can be done well, it can be subtle, it can be and unnoticed part of the story. But when you alter the story and insert extra elements in order to achieve extra product placements then you are at serious risk of making a bad advert instead of a good film.

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

  CineMuseFilms2016-05-25

  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.

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• A rare treat of a movie

  rogerdarlington2016-06-25

  What a delight to see a film in which an older woman is the central character. No coincidence then that the writer and director is a woman, Lorene Scafari who was responsible for "Seeking A Friend At The End Of The World". The title is somewhat unkind to the well-meaning, if somewhat overpowering, Marnie, played wonderfully by Susan Sarandon who continues to shine brightly long after the days of "Thelma And Louise". In support roles, the beautiful Rose Byrne (first spotted by me in "Bridesmaids") as her daughter Lori and the gravel-voiced J K Simmons (fresh from his triumph in "Whiplash") as her knight in black leather are pitch-perfect. This is a movie which is funny, moving and insightful - a rare treat.

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