Marnie, widowed nearly two years ago is trying to find a new purpose in life, but it's not easy. Having moved from New Jersey to LA to be near her screenwriter daughter (who finds her mother's constant presence in her life overpowering), Marnie's new life includes planning and funding an expensive wedding for a casual acquaintance, accidental work as a movie extra, encouraging a young iPad salesman to widen his educational horizon and ferrying him to night classes (with consequences), and meeting a man who keeps chickens.
Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, whose scant previous credits include writing/directing Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World and writing Nick And Nora's Infinite Playlist, this movie (which arrived at my local cinema without so much as a trailer preceding it) features Susan Sarandon as Marnie, Rose Byrne as daughter Lori, JK Simmons as Zipper (the chicken-owning cop, the script is undecided as to whether he is retired or not), and several other names in supporting roles.
It is possible to get irritated with Marnie's mild inability to mind her own business, just as Lori's tendency towards moody angst could get on your nerves, but it is easy to see where these traits come from, and the death of husband/Dad Jack before the film starts is clearly of major importance to both women - indeed, it seeds the final sequence of the film. Likewise, Marnie's tendency to back off - literally - from the possibility of a close relationship with a man comes from the same place. The impulsive decision to bankroll the lesbian wedding of a friend of her daughter, a woman she hardly knows, is puzzling and required more explanation: inherited wealth is the obvious answer, as evidenced by the late husband's expensive car, but it would have helped to have had some explanation.
The biggest flaw here is that there seems to be a lack of purpose to the film. It meanders. The drama is gentle, but doesn't always go anywhere much. Things happen and then the expected consequences never materialise. It's all very soap opera-ish, but without any real pay-off to a number of the plot strands which are established.
Having said that, there are happy endings - kind of - to the mother/daughter side of things, and one assumes that Marnie and Lori continue their lives in a slightly more contented vein than previously.
Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, whose scant previous credits include writing/directing Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World and writing Nick And Nora's Infinite Playlist, this movie (which arrived at my local cinema without so much as a trailer preceding it) features Susan Sarandon as Marnie, Rose Byrne as daughter Lori, JK Simmons as Zipper (the chicken-owning cop, the script is undecided as to whether he is retired or not), and several other names in supporting roles.
It is possible to get irritated with Marnie's mild inability to mind her own business, just as Lori's tendency towards moody angst could get on your nerves, but it is easy to see where these traits come from, and the death of husband/Dad Jack before the film starts is clearly of major importance to both women - indeed, it seeds the final sequence of the film. Likewise, Marnie's tendency to back off - literally - from the possibility of a close relationship with a man comes from the same place. The impulsive decision to bankroll the lesbian wedding of a friend of her daughter, a woman she hardly knows, is puzzling and required more explanation: inherited wealth is the obvious answer, as evidenced by the late husband's expensive car, but it would have helped to have had some explanation.
The biggest flaw here is that there seems to be a lack of purpose to the film. It meanders. The drama is gentle, but doesn't always go anywhere much. Things happen and then the expected consequences never materialise. It's all very soap opera-ish, but without any real pay-off to a number of the plot strands which are established.
Having said that, there are happy endings - kind of - to the mother/daughter side of things, and one assumes that Marnie and Lori continue their lives in a slightly more contented vein than previously.