‘Thelma’: Portrait of a Badass Grandmother

I first noticed June Squibb in 1997’s In & Out, in which her character complained about her husband’s third testicle. The second time I noticed her, was in 2002’s About Schmidt, in which her character’s last words, before her sudden off-screen demise, was, “don’t dilly-daddle.”

More noteworthy, of course, was that the Academy would finally notice her, after a career that spanned over four decades, having worked with some of the greatest filmmakers of the time, in 2013’s Nebraska. For her performance in that movie, she received a rightful Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Now, after a long career of supporting roles and bit parts, at the age of 94, she’s finally garnered her first on-screen leading role as the title character of Thelma. I’ve always had great affection for character actors/actresses who get their shot at a leading part, and when I saw the trailer of Thelma some time ago, I knew I had to see this film, and it is with great pleasure that I must announce that Thelma is as good as I had hoped.

Thelma is a widower, living by herself, spending most of her time with her loyal twenty-some grandson Danny (Fred Hechinger) who spends a lot of time trying to teach her how to use a computer. Thelma is in her nineties, with a history of health complications, which worry her daughter (Parker Posey) and her son-in-law (Clark Gregg), who often consider putting her in an assisted-living facility. Thelma doesn’t want that. She wants to remain independent. She doesn’t want to be considered feeble. She doesn’t want to become like her old friends and colleagues who are losing their wits or wasting away.

Then one day, a voice on the telephone pretending to be her grandson, tells her that he’s been arrested and needs bail money. Under the instruction of a supposed lawyer, she sends ten grand of her savings to a certain address and then discovers that her grandson wasn’t arrested at all. She was merely a victim of a pernicious con. Together with her family, she reports this to the police, but, as expected, there’s nothing much they can do.

Thelma doesn’t take this lying down and vows to get her money back, and together with an old friend of hers, Ben (Richard Roundtree), she goes on a journey to get her money back. All the while, her grandson, her daughter, and her son-in-law are on their trail, as they fear for her safety.

Once the plot gets going, the film is edited and scored like it’s a Mission: Impossible movie; but of course, Thelma’s journey does not contain any of the insane stunts by Tom Cruise, but would, for instance, be about going up the stairs without breaking her hip.

Of course, this offers much hilarity, but what makes it so endearing is that despite the bounty of geriatric jokes, the film never becomes mean. There’s a deep compassion for the struggles of senior citizens, while at the same time, being honest about the harsh affliction of old age.

This film could have easily devolved into the geriatric fluff that the film market is flooded with. You know these movies, where old people discover that life is not over yet, and find love again. There is a big market for these movies, as the senescent among us, need comfort food too.

I’m actually a big fan of many of such movies. Though they suffer from being predictable and are often structured the same way, what makes them better is that due to the subject matter of old age, they are forced to confront some of the darker facts of life; the fear of decrepitude, the meaning of oblivion.

Naturally, most of these movies only gently tackle these themes and not all of them become as deep as say, Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries, and they don’t have to, of course. But they often have a darker edge to them, which makes them more meaningful than your standard rom-com.

Thelma is one such meaningful example. It’s a film that doesn’t screw around. It takes a hard look at old age. It shows senility, confusion, and loneliness of it, especially when many of your loved ones around have passed on.

One such scene has Thelma and Ben visit an old acquaintance of theirs, Mona (Bunny Levine), another woman in her winter years, whose house is filthy and who has grown too tired to kill all the cockroaches, and who states that one, “has to choose their battles.”  Some minutes later, she has even forgotten that they were there.

There’s also the dichotomy between Thelma and Ben; Thelma doesn’t want to confront growing old and doesn’t want to be around it, while Ben has accepted it, even finding life inside a senior living facility comforting.

It goes without saying that June Squibb is an absolute treasure in the film. What made her stand out in Nebraska comes to the forefront here. She’s acerbic, candid, occasionally crude. She’s funny but also gets to be a badass. She might not be able to punch or kick someone, but she uses her wits to get the upper hand.

But this isn’t just a June Squibb film, this is also a Richard Roundtree film, and is sadly his final film in a long and prestigious career. Being primarily known for playing the blaxploitation legend Shaft, Roundtree plays an against-type role as the more sensitive Ben, a person who tempers one another’s more violent tendencies, and does not want to kick ass. Though without spoiling too much, Ben does get to do some action.

The chemistry between Roundtree and Squibb is also wonderful and had life been more fair, we would have gotten a series of buddy movies with these two. It’s likely one of the best Roundtree roles, and it’s unfortunate, especially with how good he looks in this film, that he’s no longer with us.

On a side note, if you didn’t see his name in the opening credits, listen closely to the fake lawyer Thelma speaks to over the phone earlier in the movie: he sounds an awful lot like Malcolm McDowell.

This is the directorial debut of Josh Margolin — the grandson of Ted Post, a classic working director — who also wrote the film, and based the title character on his own grandmother. It’s clear the grandson character was partly based on himself, and that his living relationship with his grandmother (the heart of the film), was based on his own. And what makes this film so endearing is that all of it indeed feels like a cinematic tribute to a woman who made such a great impact on his life.

On a personal note, I was also someone who had a very close relationship with my grandmother. Not only that, Thelma looked somewhat like my grandmother, and that made the film even more emotionally engaging. Surely, there are more grandma boys out there, with whom this film will strike an emotional chord.

On a last note, please watch out for a scene after the first end credits, as you will get to see footage of the real Thelma, saying things that the cinematic Thelma had spoken earlier. It’s one of the most touching final scenes I’ve seen in a long while.

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