June Squibb and Richard Roundtree deliver heart and humor in Josh Margolin’s feature debut
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
In the jaunty, geriatric caper movie “Thelma,” 94-year-old June Squibb is the screen’s new Tom Cruise. Correction, make that the old Tom Cruise. Well, that’s not quite right either. Squibb plays 93-year-old Thelma Post, a widow living alone, trying to help her 23-year-old grandson negotiate life’s challenges while making concessions to time by agreeing to wear a Lifeline on her wrist. But when Thelma gets scammed out of $10,000 by someone who calls her pretending to be her grandson, the old woman goes all Ethan Hunt, complete with some (OK, slo-mo) moves, a gun, and an accomplice played by none other than the original Shaft (Richard Roundtree, excellent in his final screen performance).
“Thelma” is a rare film carried by a nonagenarian, who isn’t named Clint, a decidedly low-budget effort, but with a cast worth its weight in gold. In addition to Squibb and Roundtree, the film features Parker Posey as Thelma’s apoplectic daughter, Gail; Clark Gregg as Thelma’s amusingly fastidious son-in-law Alan; and Fred Hechinger as Thelma’s lost but loving grandson Danny. “Thelma” marks an auspicious feature debut by writer-director Josh Margolin. It’s no surprise that Wesleyan graduate Margolin has experience as a comic because he shows a deft hand in making “Thelma” a shoestring “Mission Impossible” parody, complete with music by Nick Chuba (“Shogun”) sounding suspiciously like the world-famous “MI” theme by the great Lalo Schifrin.
This impossible mission begins when Thelma visits her old friend and travel buddy Ben Halperin (Roundtree) in his nursing home and steals his two-seat scooter, only to find him in the back seat after she makes her getaway. His only proviso is that she get him back by curtain time since he’s playing Daddy Warbucks in the home’s production of “Annie.” Can you guess how this ends?
While we’re at the nursing home, we also meet the show’s Annie (a hilarious Sheila Korsi, “Emily the Criminal”), whose enthusiastic pronunciation of the word “Golly” will slay you, and Ben’s spookily watchful roommate “Starey” Gary (David Giuliani). On their way to the Van Nuys mailbox address, where Thelma sent her cash, she and Ben stop to say hello to another old friend (Bunny Levine, yet another asset) to pinch her Smith & Wesson. While Thelma has a shaky hand on the computer mouse, she has puzzled out a way to turn her hearing aid into a microphone. Dum, dum, dum, dum…
Alone at home, Thelma listens to recordings of her late husband singing “Papa Loves Mambo” and “One Enchanted Evening” and works on her needlepoint. But she is a devil when it comes to her savings. When she and Ben see a young man open the mailbox where Thelma sent the money, they follow him to one of Los Angeles’ oddly numerous light bulb and lighting fixture shops. The shop is a not-quite Cruise-level obstacle course, but it is nonetheless challenging for Thelma. Eventually, she threads her way to the back, where she finds none other than the star of “A Clockwork Orange” (1971), aka Malcolm McDowell, working the phone with the young man, whose name is Michael (Aidan Fiske, doing a lot with a little), at an old computer beside him. Writer-director Margolin wisely gives McDowell’s Harvey, who sports a nasal cannula connected to oxygen, an angry speech about how he’s gone broke because people are buying things on Amazon. McDowell nails the prole bitterness.
“Thelma” has some serious and semi-serious things to say about growing old. One of Thelma’s late friends burned up in a fire pit (that, unfortunately, sounds funnier than it might have been). Thelma’s list of “preexisting conditions” is a fiendish incantation ending with the punchline, “brain tumor.” How is she alive? For some reason, Thelma thinks she knows every other old person she runs into, and they humor her. Watch out for a surprise clip at the end. Even without Louise, this “Thelma” is a winner.
‘Thelma’
Rating: PG-13 for strong language
Cast: June Squibb, Richard Roundtree, Parker Posey, Fred Hechinger
Director-writer: Josh Margolin
Running Time: 97 minutes
Where to Watch: In theaters everywhere on Friday
Grade: B+
Boston Movie News 