Susan Sarandon is Marnie Minervini, a recent widow and the meddlesome mother of “The Meddler.” Marnie is an Italian iteration of Molly Goldberg minus the charm. She might be charming if there were a full-fledged movie around her instead of a display case—Ms. Sarandon is, of course, a deft comedian. But the filmmaker, Lorene Scafaria, dotes on her subject so relentlessly that Marnie, who respects no boundaries between herself and her daughter, keeps invading our space too.  If there’s a single spontaneous moment, I can’t recall it. The plot clanks into action when Marnie decides to move from New Jersey to Los Angeles to be close to her daughter, Lori (Rose Byrne), a successful but terribly nebbishy TV writer. From that point on, and on, and on, it’s nonstop helpfulness and intrusiveness on Marnie’s part, a barrage directed not only at Lori but at a racially, sexually and demographically representative assortment of people that includes a young Genius—as distinct from a genius—who works at the Apple store where the production concentrates its product placements, and where Marnie acquires the hardware that extends her reach into other lives.  The script, ever helpful in its turn, uses an annoying psychotherapist to explain Marnie’s motives to her, and to us. Rather than repeat the diagnosis, I’ll say only that the heroine’s excesses are meant to make her even more lovable than she first seems to be, and that a chance for love comes her way in the person of the suggestively named Zipper (J.K. Simmons), a retired cop who rides a Harley, raises chickens and gives her eggs, one of which she poaches for herself in the privacy of her kitchen, and eats lasciviously. It’s another suggestive moment in a script that’s mostly meat and potatoes.  Susan Sarandon plays Sally, a would-be croupier. Burt Lancaster is Lou, an aging, nostalgic gangster. The film starts with a mystery that’s as mesmerizing for us as it is for Lou—the sight of Sally, through a window of her apartment, laving her hands as if in some religious ritual. (The solution has to do with lemon juice, and shrimp.) Louis Malle directed from an original script—an extremely original script—by John Guare.
A compulsively nurturing mother played by Susan Sarandon moves West to be close to her daughter; directed by Lorene Scafaria; also starring Rose Byrne and J.K. Simmons