Thelma review: A sweet action comedy

How often does a film come out that you can safely recommend to literally everyone in your life? Not often enough. For this reason alone Thelma deserves to be celebrated. It may not seem like the most obvious summer blockbuster, but it’s the rare kind of movie you can watch with your parents – or your grandparents, or your kids – safe in the knowledge that everyone in the theater will have a great time. That’s not just because of its playful action-parody premise or its cross-generational cast, although both deserve praise. Thelma is simply an entertaining film with a likeable protagonist that you just have to root for.

It helps that the protagonist is played by the indomitable June Squibb (Nebraska, and many, many more). At 93, she capably stars in the title role, with a little help from the late Richard Roundtree (Shaft himself) in the role of her longtime friend and adventurous sidekick Ben. It’s a pleasure to spend time with these spirited characters as they traverse the San Fernando Valley on a motor scooter on a quirky quest to track down the thieves who scammed Thelma out of $10,000 over the phone. They argue about the merits of their living situations – Thelma still lives alone while Ben lives in a retirement home – reminisce about their deceased spouses and visit an ailing friend who puts everything in perspective. It’s not until they reach their final destination that things really heat up (literally, in one of the film’s best visual gags) and Thelma gets to live out her action-hero fantasy with Tom Cruise.

Meanwhile, Thelma’s daughter Gail (Parker Posey), her son-in-law Alan (Clark Gregg) and her 24-year-old grandson Danny (Fred Hechinger) worry about her disappearance. Danny feels responsible for her loss, as she persuaded him to drive her to Ben before they both got away. Danny genuinely cares for his grandmother and spends time patiently teaching her the latest technology or keeping her company by Impossible mission Movies. Fresh from a breakup and unemployed, he feels trapped and smothered by his overprotective parents. There is not much difference in the way they treat Danny and Thelma, as if neither of them could do anything on their own. At some point, this stubborn assumption became a self-fulfilling prophecy. The challenge for Danny and Thelma is to prove that they are capable of much more than anyone (especially Gail and Alan) expects of them.

First-time filmmaker Josh Margolin, who directed and edited the film, has said he based the character of Thelma on his own grandmother. He got the idea for the script after she fell for a phone scam years ago and imagined her embarking on a quest for revenge. Danny is clearly a stand-in for Margolin, too. It’s easy to imagine Danny pulling himself together after the film ends and writing it all into a script. The close relationship between Danny and Thelma is sweet, and their parallel journeys toward autonomy – one learning to assert it and the other struggling to keep it – prove to be the emotional core of the film.

That core is shielded by the hilarious exchanges between Thelma and Ben and the increasingly absurd situations they find themselves in. Yet even when things get out of control, Margolin keeps everything in balance by giving the characters an authenticity that can only come from spending time with real old people. There are plenty of little touches that add depth to the characters, such as a running gag where Thelma keeps thinking she recognizes random strangers, or Ben playing Daddy Warbucks in an all-senior production of Annieor the moments that aren’t meant for laughs, like when they talk about all the people they know who have died. Margolin wisely doesn’t get in the actors’ way in these scenes. He just gives them space and lets them cook.

At the same level, Thelma is a fun and witty twist on the action genre. It’s an entertaining journey that lasts a leisurely 90 minutes or so. If that’s all you take away from it, that’s totally fine. On a deeper level, however, the film has some important things to say about the final stages of life. It might make you think of words like “dignity” and “decency.” It asks you to recognize how hard it is to hold on to your self-esteem when your body and mind start to fade. It encourages you to look at the elders around you with respect. No matter how you look at the film, it’s a great summer outing for viewers of all ages.