Thoughts on Thelma

  On Hulu, I watched the 2024 comedy Thelma, written and directed by Josh Margolin, starring June Squibb as the titular character, a woman in her nineties who gets scammed out of $10,000 by a caller pretending to be her grandson, and she goes on a mission to track down the scammers and get her money back.

    I really liked how the film is a mix of being a comedy about an elderly widow who borrows her friend Ben's (Richard Roundtree, in his final film role before his death in 2023) scooter, with her family panicking and trying to find her and driving around L.A., but mixing in serious issues about the realities of being old, the body hurting and breaking down, and needing to ask for help despite priding oneself on being independent. 

    Thelma doesn't like to be patronized or talked down to, and isn't going to let this money loss go, because she wants justice and her money back. She doesn't like that her grandson worries about her, wanting him to focus on his own life, and refusing to wear the medic alert bracelet that he had given her. When he tries to guide her in using a computer and talks down to her, she gives a sarcastic reply that seems to go over his head.

    Parker Posey and Clark Gregg are decent in supporting roles as Thelma's daughter Gail and son in-law Alan, and Fred Hechinger gives a nice performance as Thelma's grandson Danny, a young man who feels aimless in his life and empty after his recent breakup with his girlfriend.

    The finale with the scammers halfway plays out like a climax to an action film, but as it involves two elderly people with health issues, it doesn't go the way of a John Wick or Equalizer kind of gun battle finale. Rather, it's more like two people recognizing each other's desperation and mortality, but not having much sympathy for the other.

    The director Josh Margolin based the movie on his 103-yr old grandma Thelma, who was almost duped by scammers in a similar scheme. The film ends with a cute clip of the real-life Thelma, as sassy and as funny as the fictional version.

    June Squibb is fantastic in this film, and it's great seeing her in a film where she isn't just playing someone's funny grandma with one-liners, but is the lead character and shows a lot of heart and lived life and emotional resonance in the role of Thelma, and was really captivating to watch.