Lorene Scafaria’s “The Meddler”, which is currently available on Netflix in South Korea, is a likable comedy drama about one middle-aged lady trying to figure out what is next for her life. As she interacts with a number of people around her along the story, the movie cheerfully goes back and forth between comedy and drama, and it is often energized by the enduring presence and talent of its lead actress.

Susan Sarandon, who gives one of her best performances during last 20 years in this film, is Marnie Minervini, a middle-aged widow who recently moved from New York City to LA after her rich husband’s death mainly because her daughter Lori (Rose Byrne) is living there. As your average wealthy widow with so much money but so little to do for now, Marnie usually pays lots of attention to Lori, but Lori does not welcome this much as mostly occupied with her current personal/professional struggle.

In addition, Marnie also gets herself involved with the lives of some other people because, well, she really cares about them and wants to help them as much as she can. When one of Lori’s friends happens to have a baby shower party, she attends the party instead of her daughter. When a lesbian friend of Kori’s friends laments about not having a big wedding ceremony with her wife, Marnie does not hesitate to plan and finance the wedding ceremony for her and her wife simply because she can afford to do that. In case of a young black guy she happens to befriend at an Apple store where he works, she gives him lots of support and encouragement in exchange for helping her bit on handling her new iPhone, and he eventually decides to be more active about what he is going to do with his life.

However, Marine’s relationship with Lori remains rather strained as usual. She just wants to help and support Lori more, but she is only reminded of how she often does not understand her daughter much. For example, she suggests that her daughter should try to start again with her ex-boyfriend, but that is the last thing Lori wants for now, and she also becomes more occupied with the story development of the pilot episode of a possible TV series.

Marnie even goes to Lori’s therapist for understanding her daughter more, but, of course, the therapist does not tell anything about whatever was exchanged between her and Lori. Instead, she asks Marnie about her feelings about her recent personal loss from her husband’s death, and it is apparent that there is something not entirely resolved yet for her even though she feels ready to move forward.

When her daughter later goes to New York City due to the shooting of that TV pilot episode, Marnie becomes more occupied with paying attention to others around her. While she keeps preparing the upcoming wedding ceremony for the aforementioned lesbian couple, she also takes care of a sick old lady at a local hospital where she works as a volunteer, and she also often takes that young black man to a college where he begins to study.

And then there comes an unexpected opportunity of new romance via Randall Zipper (J.K. Simmons), a retired police officer she happens to encounter not long after she accidentally gets hired as an extra on a movie set. When they meet again, something seems to click between them although she is not exactly in good condition for an understandable reason, and he willingly shows her more of himself and his life, but she wonders whether she is really ready for the second romance in her life.

Without leaning too much toward drama or comedy, Scafaria’s screenplay bounces from one episodic moment to another for more character development, and not only Marnie but also several other characters around her come to us real human characters to observe. While Marnie is basically your typical rich white lady, we come to like her more than expected as she shows more heart and common sense along the story, and the movie also imbues its several supporting characters with enough life and personality, though a subplot involved with that young black man feels rather under-developed (At least, you may enjoy watching Jerrod Carmichael when he was less prominent than now).

Above all, Sarandon keeps holding the center of the film even when it seems to meander from time to time. Although her prime period mainly represented by five Oscar nominations and one Oscar win has passed, Sarandon is still a wonderful actress as recently shown from her Emmy-nominated performance in TV miniseries “Feud”, and she ably balances her character between humor and poignancy without any cheap laugh or sentimentality. Around her, Rose Byrne and J.K. Simmons, who has been one of ever-dependable character actors in Hollywood during last 20 years, have each own moment to shine, and Byrne is especially good during a funny and touching scene between her and Sarandon later in the film.

On the whole, “The Meddler” is a little gem too good to be forgotten in obscurity mainly due to Sarandon’s funny and charming performance. To be frank with you, I saw a lot of my own mother from her character, and now I wonder whether I will get much more calls from her if she happens to be widowed someday. She still denies my homosexuality, but she cares about me nonetheless, and maybe I should be a bit more considerate later.