Thelma (2024) * * *

 

Directed by: Josh Margolin

Starring:  June Squibb, Richard Roundtree, Fred Hechinger, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, Malcolm McDowell

Thelma Post (Squibb) is a ninetyish grandmother who still lives alone on her own and besides not being aces at a computer, she is self-sufficient.  She has a close relationship with her grandson Danny (Hechinger), who teaches her how to use the computer and drives her to where she needs to go.  One day, Thelma receives an urgent call from someone sounding like Danny and is instructed to send $10,000 to a PO box in order for him to avoid any trouble with the law.  Thelma obliges, but soon learns she was the victim of a scam.  

With her daughter and son-in-law loudly mulling placing Thelma in a nursing home, Thelma fights back by enlisting her friend Ben (Roundtree-in his final screen performance) and his scooter to travel to another part of town to track down who scammed her.  Ben reluctantly goes along, mostly because Thelma took his scooter, while Thelma's family contacts the police and listens for any news of her whereabouts.  When Thelma locates her scammer (McDowell), she handles him diligently and swiftly while he attempts in vain to reason with her.  "Someone has to keep the lights on," he argues, as if that justifies his operation of ripping off the naive and elderly. 

Thelma never lapses into silliness or gives us an "aww, isn't she cute?" hero.  Squibb, so memorable in 2013's Nebraska (for which she received an Oscar nomination), gives us a resourceful, kind, and determined protagonist.  Roundtree hits notes of sweetness and sensitivity we never got to see in his previous work.  He is a man who understands the limitations placed on him by age, and isn't afraid to ask for help.  I would love to see Squibb and Roundtree receive Oscar nominations for their roles.  The question is:  Will Thelma be remembered come nomination time?  It's a small-scale, tender movie with a heart, and one released in June to a scattering of theaters.  The studio will have to work overtime on this campaign.