Thelma review: Mission Impossible on a mobility scooter, writes BRIAN VINER
Thelma (12A, 98 mins)
Verdict: Who needs Louise?
June Squibb finally has her first starring role, as the title character in the cheeringly funny, gently poignant, wholly satisfying Thelma.
Squibb already has an Oscar nomination to her name, for Best Supporting Actress for her scene-stealing turn in Alexander Payne's Nebraska (2013), when she was a mere 84. By the time of the next Academy Awards she will be 95 and I wouldn't bet against her going one better. What a story that would be.
Thelma is a great story, too; and ostensibly a simple one. In Los Angeles, a sweet but iron-willed grandma is scammed out of $10,000 and resolves to track down the rotters who tricked her, in the hope of getting the money back.
June Squibb finally has her first starring role, as the title character in the cheeringly funny, gently poignant, wholly satisfying Thelma
The relationship at the heart of his story is the one between the grandma 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 a great story, too; and ostensibly a simple one. In Los Angeles , a sweet but iron-willed grandma is scammed out of $10,000 and resolves to track down the rotters who tricked her, in the hope of getting the money back
Yet there is more to it than that. First-time writer-director Josh Margolin clearly wants us to consider the challenges of great age, not just its frailties and indignities but also the presumptuous ways in which old people are perceived, by society at large and more significantly by their own families.
It is clear from the start that Margolin knows his subject, and sure enough he was inspired by an attempted scam on his own beloved grandmother, also called Thelma.
The relationship at the heart of his story is the one between the grandma and her grandson, Danny (Fred Hechinger), which again is partly autobiographical, and the film is all the better for these personal connections.
As so often in films about old-timers, Thelma's lack of computer nous — 'what's an inbox?' — is used as shorthand for her befuddlement. Yet we also see her expertly working on her tapestries.
The message is clear. She still has plenty of cherishable skills, just not the ones that are deemed necessary to navigate modern life.
And then comes the scam: 'Danny' phones, wailing that he's in desperate trouble and needs $10,000 urgently to bail him out. His doting grandma promptly withdraws the cash and sticks it in the post.
While Danny and his fusspot parents, Thelma's daughter Gail (Parker Posey, having fun) and son-in-law Alan (Clark Gregg), are just relieved that the old lady is unharmed by this cruel hoax, she is determined to do something about it, especially once it emerges that the police are powerless to help.
As so often in films about old-timers, Thelma's lack of computer nous — 'what's an inbox?' — is used as shorthand for her befuddlement. Pictured: Fred Hechinger as Daniel, June Squibb as Thelma, Parker Posey as Gail, Clark Gregg as Alan and Chase Kim as Detective Morgan
Her quest for justice is at times very funny, and Squibb's wonderful performance helps Margolin swerve the grating tweeness that often bedevils films about spirited oldies
Thelma is mostly a delight, and contains some fabulous one-liners, which might well be lifted from the real-life Thelma, as when the old lady is musing on what has become of all her friends
Her inspiration, splendidly, is Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible. With the help of Ben (Richard Roundtree in his final screen role), an old friend with a top-of-the-range mobility scooter, she sets off to find the PO Box used by the scammers.
Her quest for justice is at times very funny, and Squibb's wonderful performance helps Margolin swerve the grating tweeness that often bedevils films about spirited oldies. It is at its worst in 'bittersweet comedies' such as The Leisure Seeker (2017), which could not be redeemed even by Helen Mirren and the late Donald Sutherland.
Margolin doesn't always get it right. There are some narrative tangents and bits of slapstick that the story doesn't need — and how disappointing to find that Thelma requires a gun to make her own mission possible, ammunition for all those Americans who believe that firearms provide more solutions than questions.
Nevertheless, Thelma is mostly a delight, and contains some fabulous one-liners, which might well be lifted from the real-life Thelma, as when the old lady is musing on what has become of all her friends.
'Judith is a hunchback now,' she declares sadly, by way of explaining why Judith has turned into such a rubbish lunch companion, and which, I confess, made me laugh out loud.
