'Meddler' a comic drama full of AARPish joy

Marnie Minervini is a champion meddler. She can really put the pedal to the meddle.

She calls her poor TV writer daughter Lori almost hourly, leaving a trail of phone messages filled with questions about her job, advice about love, observations about the world, and other personal, annoying, suffocating mom stuff.

As played by Susan Sarandon, Hollywood's most alluring senior citizen, Marnie comes off as lovably eccentric, much more courageous than you might expect, and rendered more sympathetic by her motherly tendencies to smother the daylights out of her exasperated daughter Lori (Rose Byrne).

Writer/director Lorene Scafaria based "The Meddler" on her mom, Gail, who, like Marnie, moved from the east coast to Hollywood to be near her single writer daughter after the death of her loving husband.

Scafaria's comic drama can be corny and sitcomy at times, yet its characters feel grounded and real, and Sarandon's performance genuine and effortless. It's a half-filled-glass view of the world brimming with optimism amid loss and grief.

When Lori, still reeling from her breakup with an actor (Jason Ritter), finally declares her personal life off-limits, Marnie feels hurt, but nonetheless charges onward like a female Elwood P. Dowd, armed with her late husband's bank account to give her transitioning life purpose.

Marnie finances college for a struggling young law student (Jerrod Carmichael) she meets working at an Apple Store. She pops for a $13,000 lesbian wedding for Jillian (Cecily Strong), a friend of her daughter, who could never afford it.

The obligatory romantic subplot (hey, you knew one would come along) springs organically, naturally, spontaneously, with the versatile J.K, Simmons playing Zipper, an ex-cop biker who raises free-range chickens that unload gourmet eggs while listening to Dolly Parton tunes.

Simmons plies his crusty ex-cop with the sort of settled gratefulness that can only be forged by the passage of time, and by a life filled with challenging hurdles.

"The Meddler" possesses more than its share of verbal crutches ("This is crazy!" "Awesome!" "I can't do this anymore!") and visual crutches (amusement parks, big fans, balloons), but Scafaria's loving tribute to her late father - resurrected in Lori's TV show by Harry Hamlin - transcends the trivial.