Thelma: Movie Review

Cast: June Squibb, Richard Roundtree, Fred Hechinger, Clark Gregg, Parker Posey, Malcolm McDowell
Director: Josh Margolin

The nonagenarian counterpart to Jason Statham's action-filled The Beekeeper, Thelma is an absolute and unmitigated delight.

When Thelma (a sprightly and spry Squibb) is conned out of $10,000 by scammers who claim her beloved grandson (Hechinger) is in jail after an accident, she decides not to let it hold her back after police say nothing can be done.

Finding the address where she posted the money, the determined OAP sets out to recover the cash - and ends up enlisting the help of Ben (Roundtree, in his final feature film outing) - despite his protestations otherwise.

There's a sweetly bitter core at the heart of Thelma, but it's held together with such good humour by the script and Squibb's performance that it's hard to deny the odd couple road trip vibe that's meshed with a riotous edge.

While the story proffers dalliances with serious issues facing the older generation (incarceration in care homes, senility and loss) it rarely dwells cheaply on them, preferring instead to roll in tropes of action films (a final explosion is just hilarious) with a rollicking story that rattles along.

Squibb offers an absolute showcase of humanity in a role that calls for comedy and pathos aplenty. Laughs are gained from a scene where she tries to call old friends to help, with a tragi-comic undercurrent that they've all recently died or had strokes, or illnesses. There's plenty of veracity within the story - but not once does it overplay its hand, preferring to keep proceedings more effective by dealing with lighter edges.

Sure there's broad comedy throughout - but for every seemingly easy laugh, there's a subtle point about the reality of getting old and being old. There's feistiness aplenty, running gags about Thelma knowing everyone she meets during this road trip and a crowd-pleasing glee to what transpires in this pastiche of Mission: Impossible and the aforementioned Statham film. (Though admittedly with less of a body count.)

"This whole thing has been really ridiculous" one character intones at one point of the film. In truth, they have a point; but in reality, had it not been so, this would not have been the joyous tale it turns out to be - and one of the best films of a somewhat lacklustre 2024.