Thelma - Film Review

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After being scammed out of ten thousand dollars, Thelma Post, despite being 93 years old, decides to take action. Inspired in part by the Mission Impossible films and with the help of an old friend, Thelma sets out on a motorised scooter to find the criminals responsible for defrauding her. This is the premise of Josh Margolin's Thelma, a drolly funny film, which although a little slight, offers fantastic performances and a whimsical storyline.



Actress June Squibb plays the title character. Thelma Post suffers an array of maladies, but at her age she can't (and doesn't) complain. She lives in her own home and is visited frequently by her grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger), a likeable slacker in his early twenties. Daniel has time and enjoys spending it with his grandmother, patiently showing her how to use email and watching Tom Cruise movies with her.

So when Thelma gets a call telling her that Daniel is in trouble, she jumps to action, quickly parting with ten thousand dollars (supposedly for a lawyer to get him out of jail). Daniel soon appears, having at no time been incarcerated, and everyone realises Thelma has been duped. Thelma's daughter, Gail (Daniel's mother, played by Parker Posey) and son-in-law Alan (Clark Gregg) also arrive on the scene. The couple are middle-class professionals with an infantilising streak which extends to Thelma, Daniel and each other. These character traits appear somewhat random, but the script stays with it and the control-freak couple are good for a few laughs.

The four of them file down to the police station to recount the crime, which is met only with an assurance that the elderly getting scammed happens regularly. Gail decides that Thelma needs closer supervision, a plan which lasts until Thelma absconds from a nursing home in the company of Ben (Richard Roundtree), an old friend whose usefulness lies in the fact that he owns a rather flash, two-seater scooter. Armed with the address of the scammers, Thelma and Ben ride off in search of justice, leaving everyone to worry about their whereabouts.

Josh Margolin's script and direction work well here (much of the inspiration for Thelma apparently came from his own grandmother). And the film is often very amusing: a running gag in which Thelma approaches people on the street she thinks she knows and after much name-dropping realises she doesn't, reaches an agreeable crescendo late in the film. Other times the jokes drag, as with Thelma's difficulty using a computer, and some of the mock action sequences roll on too slowly. But there are plenty more hits than misses.

Not many films boast a 93-year-old lead and June Squibb is wonderful as Thelma. Richard Roundtree as Ben is also excellent and his character's appreciation of life and his simple acceptance of getting old means the film, despite its comedic premise, ends up saying memorable things about getting old. It doesn't all work all the time, but Thelma is a satisfying crowd-pleaser.

Thelma is in cinemas September 5.

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