New film Thelma is Mission: Impossible on mobility scooters

With veteran actor June Squibb, 94, in the lead role, Thelma is Mission: Impossible on mobility scooters, with a soundtrack to match.

June Squibb in Thelma.

The comedy-drama Thelma is about the downgrades — and upgrades — of getting old. It stars the remarkable June Squibb, 93 when she made the film, as 93-year-old Thelma, a widow who still lives in her own home in Los Angeles.

Her “guardian angel” is her grandson Danny (an impressive Fred Hechinger), an over-parented child who loves her and means well but does his own over-parenting. “You should not have gone that far on your own,’’ he chides when she leaves the house to visit the shops.

It’s in her home, however, where the serious trouble starts. She receives a phone call from Danny. He’s in jail, accused of running his car into a pregnant woman, and needs $10,000 bail.

It’s scam call and what happens is well filmed and will make you hesitate to talk to anyone on the phone. Thelma sends the money. Danny, who was asleep at his own home, soon turns up, as do his edgy mother (Parker Posey) and rule-bound father (Clark Gregg).

They tell Thelma she is “home and safe and that’s all that matters”. However, it’s not all that matters to her. She is determined to retrieve her money and, as Danny notes, she is “one tough ­cookie”.

Thelma, inspired by seeing Tom Cruise on the TV, dons sneakers, goes to a retirement village, inveigles her old friend Ben (an excellent Richard Roundtree) and the pair head out in pursuit of the thieves, tracking down the address the money was sent to.

What unfolds is Mission: Impossible on Mobility Scooters, with a soundtrack to match. Thelma and Ben after the crooks; Danny and his parents chasing Thelma and Ben. It is full of humour, and not a little sadness.

When Thelma decides to call other friends for help, it becomes a check-off list: stroke, heart attack, moved to Cleveland, “Oh, yes, I know she is dead”.

She does find a living friend, from whom she “borrows” a pistol. When Ben asks her if she knows how to use a gun, she replies, “How hard can it be? Idiots use them all the time”.

Importantly this movie isn’t only about ageing. One of the best scenes comes when Danny, who considers himself a 24-year-old loser, has a breakdown in a carpark because he has “lost grandma”.

This film is written and directed by Josh Margolin, in his feature debut. It is based on a scam that happened to his late grandmother Thelma, who appears in the end credits.

It’s the first lead role for Squibb, who is best known as a character actor. She received a best supporting actor nomination for Alexander Payne’s outstanding 2014 film Nebraska, starring Bruce Dern.

And while Tom Cruise did permit a MI clip to be used, the name actor in the cast is Malcolm McDowell. When Thelma meets him she delivers the best line of the movie: “You’re a good actor, but not a star.”

When Thelma and Ben reconnect, she tells him, “We all have our good days and our bad days”. When he asks “What’s today?”, she notes, “We’ll find out”, and we sure will.

Thelma (M)

98 minutes
In cinemas

★★★½