Movie Review
Lovable movie Thelma shows perils of old people using technology
Anyone with older parents or grandparents in the 21st century has almost certainly gone through the frustrating experience of trying to teach or explain new technology to them. The technological divide is real, and only seems to get worse with each passing year. The new film Thelma hilariously takes on that scenario with a story that’s alternately sweet and exciting.
As the film begins, the 93-year-old Thelma (June Squibb) is having her grandson Danny (Fred Hechinger) help her scroll through her e-mail box to find a video of her late husband. Although Thelma is still with it mentally, the challenges of technology are a bit beyond her skillset. This becomes even more apparent when a person purporting to be Danny calls and tells her he’s in jail, and needs $10,000 to get out. She immediately sends the cash, only to soon discover that she’s been scammed.
With the police unable to help her in any real way, and her family – Danny, daughter Gail (Parker Posey), and son-in-law Alan (Clark Gregg) – concerned more with her cognitive ability than her money, Thelma ropes in her friend Ben (Richard Roundtree) and his motorized scooter to track down the scammers on the other side of town. The ensuing pursuit is simultaneously the slowest one ever recorded on film and relatively thrilling.
Writer/director Josh Margolin, who was inspired to make the film by his own grandmother (stay for the credits for a sweet scene of the real Thelma), has a deft touch with the slight-yet-fulfilling story. Plenty of fun is made of Thelma’s physical limitations and her difficulty grasping knowledge about computers, but it’s done in a respectful way that never mocks her for what she can’t do. The humor comes from not just her technological issues, but also Danny patiently guiding her through increasingly fraught scenarios.
The character of Thelma is set up as one who’s almost impossible not to like, starting with the delightful bond she shares with Danny. She’s very strong-willed, something that Gail, Alan, and Ben see up close, but she’s also so charming that none of them can stay mad at her for long. One of the film’s funniest throughlines is her asking multiple people if she knows them, a sign of an aging mind that turns into a crucial plot point in the final act.
What’s especially remarkable is that Margolin manages to maintain a light mood even through the film’s heavier moments. Thelma and Ben stop at the house of their friend Mona (Bunny Levine), who lives alone despite clearly being in the depths of dementia. Margolin somehow plays the scene both for laughs and heartbreak, a threading of the needle he does on multiple occasions to keep the story humming.
The 95-year-old Squibb, who’s experienced one of the busiest times in her career after being nominated for an Oscar for 2013’s Nebraska, is a joy to watch in every frame of the film she occupies. She’s the epitome of the kindly grandmother, but the spirit she displays makes her determined character highly believable. The presence of Posey, Gregg, and Hechinger elevates the relatively small number of scenes they’re in, and Roundtree is showcased in a great way in what would turn out to be his final film role.
There have been a number of movies pairing old actors and trying to mine their ages for laughs in recent years, but none of them have the wit and charm that Thelma does. Margolin turned his love for his grandmother into a film that honors her, and also gives Squibb, Roundtree, and others the opportunity to show that age is just a number when it comes to their ability to entertain the masses.
---
Thelma is now playing in theaters.
