Thelma, US 2024. Starring June Squibb, Richard Roundtree, Fred Hechinger, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, Malcolm McDowell, Aiden Fishe, Bunny Levine. Director/writer: Josh Margolin. Comedy/ action. 97 minutes.
With a 94-year-old character actress featuring as the key protagonist in this film, one wonders what the narrative might entail. I am pleased to say I enjoyed this movie, and with another reviewer, felt it was one that would be good for younger people, in particular, to see.
When the world revolves around the young and beautiful and old age is seen almost as a disease, it is a salutary reminder that this time of life comes to us all, if we are lucky. Yes, there may be slowing down, hearing loss and occasional regret, but there is also wisdom and experience and a lifetime of love to share.
This gentle comedy/action/drama vehicle features Squibb as the eponymous Thelma. Some may think of old age as a period of diminishing returns. This film proves them wrong. Behind the failing memory, departed friends, loss of independence and family concerns, certain characteristics remain undimmed. Thelma is stubborn, occasionally foolish, and still very much her own woman. She has grit and guts and speaks her mind.
Set in Los Angeles, Thelma lives independently and occupies her days with many routine tasks. Her husband Ted has been dead for two years. Her grandson Danny (Hechinger) is at her beck and call and their relationship is lovely to watch. Danny is a bit of a lost boy at 24, not yet launched and infantilised by his professional and busy parents who also worry about how long Thelma can live by herself. Danny also tends to ‘baby’ his grandmother. However, Thelma is still running her own race, even if occasionally befuddled.
Thelma reminds us that she doesn’t feel old – even though she admits that ‘If I fall I’ll be toast’. She gets scammed to the tune of $10,000 (finding enough cash in tins and boxes and stashed under her mattress to post off to an address in a nearby suburb). A short time later, she decides she is not going to be beaten and decides to get her money back.
Here, the comedy steps up a gear when she meets an old friend Ben (Roundtree, in his last performance) and commandeers his two-person mobility scooter. There is a laugh-out loud scene when she guns it around the nursing home. They visit an old friend, Mona (Levine) to procure the gun Thelma knows is hidden on the top of Mona’s bedroom wardrobe. After a couple of misadventures, Thelma finds the scammer’s shop, a failing lighting store, whose owner Harvey (McDowell), compelling and creepy, and grandson Michael (Aidan Fiske) have resorted to this fraud to keep, ahem, the lights on. After a bit of carry on, Thelma emerges bruised but triumphant.
Throughout the film there are glimpses of life in aged-care facilities where oopsy-upsy is the name for the gentle exercise of elderly limbs. The facts of this (older) life are laid bare, respectfully. Thelma admits she didn’t expect to get this old while Ben stars as Daddy Warbucks in a residents’ performance of Annie.
What shines especially is the loving relationship between Thelma and Danny. In fact, the writer and director, Margolin, dedicated this film to his own grandmother, Thelma. This is a film for all the family, not one of your Marvel phantasmagorias, but a film that could usefully elicit discussion and empathy, especially as we are all living longer and may well have grandchildren in their 20s and 30s.
Three cheers for Squibb as Thelma who shows the audience in a consummate performance that older age can still have its adventures. As that other great old stager, George Burns said, ‘You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old’.
Released: 5 September 2024