Thelma (12A, 98 minutes)
Verdict: Who needs Louise?
June Squibb finally has her first starring role, as the title character in the joyously funny, gently moving and wholly satisfying Thelma.
Squibb already has one Oscar nomination under her belt, for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Alexander Payne’s Nebraska (2013), when she was just 84. By the time the next Academy Awards roll around she’ll be 95, and I wouldn’t bet against her surpassing that. What a story that would be!
Thelma is also a great story, and a seemingly simple one. In Los Angeles, a sweet but strong-willed grandmother is scammed out of $10,000, and decides to track down the crooks who tricked her in hopes of getting her money back.
June Squibb finally has her first starring role, as the title character in the joyously funny, gently moving and entirely satisfying Thelma.
The relationship at the heart of her story is that between the grandmother and her grandson, Danny (Fred Hechinger, pictured right), which again is partly autobiographical, and the film is all the better for these personal connections.
Thelma is also a great story, and a seemingly simple one. In Los Angeles, a sweet but iron-willed grandmother is scammed out of $10,000, and decides to track down the crooks who tricked her in hopes of getting her money back.
But there’s more to it than that. First-time writer-director Josh Margolin clearly wants us to consider the challenges of old age, not just its frailties and indignities but also the presumptuous ways in which older people are perceived by society at large and, more significantly, by their own families.
It’s clear from the start that Margolin knows her subject and was no doubt inspired by an attempted scam on her beloved grandmother, also named Thelma.
The central relationship of her story is that between the grandmother and her grandson, Danny (Fred Hechinger), which is again partly autobiographical, and the film is all the better for these personal connections.
As is often the case in veteran movies, Thelma’s lack of computer skills (what is an inbox?) is used as an expression of her bewilderment. Yet we also see her masterfully working on her tapestries.
The message is clear: you still have many valuable skills, but not the ones considered necessary to navigate modern life.
And then comes the scam: “Danny” calls, complaining that he is in serious trouble and urgently needs $10,000 to bail him out. His loving grandmother quickly withdraws the money and sends it by mail.
While Danny and his prickly parents, Thelma’s daughter Gail (Parker Posey, having a blast) and son-in-law Alan (Clark Gregg), are relieved that the old lady is unharmed by this cruel hoax, she’s determined to do something about it, especially once it turns out the police can’t do anything to help.
As is often the case in veteran movies, Thelma’s lack of computer skills (what’s an inbox?) is used as a way to express her bewilderment. Pictured: Fred Hechinger as Daniel, June Squibb as Thelma, Parker Posey as Gail, Clark Gregg as Alan and Chase Kim as Detective Morgan.
Their quest for justice is at times very funny, and Squibb’s wonderful performance helps Margolin avoid the irritating corniness that often plagues movies about spirited old men.
Thelma is for the most part a delight, and contains some terrific one-liners, which could well be lifted from the real-life Thelma, as when the old lady reflects on what has become of all her friends.
His inspiration, splendidly, is Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible. With the help of Ben (Richard Roundtree in his last film role), an old friend with a high-end scooter, he sets out to find the P.O. box used by the scammers.
Her quest for justice is sometimes very funny, and Squibb’s wonderful performance helps Margolin avoid the irritating cheesiness that often plagues movies about old, animated people. She’s at her worst in “bittersweet comedies” like The Leisure Seeker (2017), which not even Helen Mirren and the late Donald Sutherland could redeem.
Margolin doesn’t always get it right. There are some narrative tangents and bits of slapstick that the story doesn’t need, and what a letdown to discover that Thelma needs a gun to make her own mission possible — ammunition for all those Americans who believe that firearms provide more solutions than questions.
However, Thelma is for the most part a delight, and contains some terrific lines, which could well be lifted from the real-life Thelma, such as when the old lady reflects on what has become of all her friends.
“Judith is now hunched over,” he declares sadly, to explain why Judith has become such a lousy lunch companion, and which, I confess, made me laugh out loud.
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