Thelma, June Squibb shines in this one

Thelma is a love letter to all us elders out here who need an inspiration and a role model. The film stars 93 year old June Squibb as an intrepid adventurer. This movie is a total joy.

Thelma lives alone since her husband died two years ago. Her grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger) visits regularly and tries to keep an eye on her. He teaches her how to use her computer and gives her a health tracker to wear on her wrist that will alert him to any problems. She doesn’t like it and seldom wears it.

She gets a phone call from a man who says he is her grandson. He’s in jail and needs $10,000 in cash mailed to a P.O. box right away so he can get out. She does it.

When she tells her family, daughter Gail (Parker Posey) and son-in-law Alan (Clark Gregg), they tell her she fell for a scam. They go to the police, but Thelma doesn’t have the address where she sent the money so they can’t do anything to help her.

Thelma marches her wobbly self back to the P.O., finds the slip of paper with the address in the bathroom trash, and decides to fix things herself.

She goes to a retirement home to see her old friend Ben (Richard Roundtree) because she wants to borrow his scooter. When she tells him what she’s up to he insists on going with her.

Off they go, all the way across L.A. with its freeways and confusing roads. It’s a crazy trip and they run into all sorts of folks along the way – a few on purpose. One of the characters they meet is played by Malcolm McDowell. (Thelma tells him he should be a movie star, he’s such a good actor.)

The family and the folks back at the retirement home are in full alert mode trying to figure out where they went. These folks are a whole other comedy act unto themselves.

There were many funny things in this movie, but my favorite joke involved a cockroach and Tom Cruise.

I feel sure June Squibb did her own stunts in this, and some of them were pretty tricky. Climbing up on high places, falling down, navigating stairs. She’s my hero!

The trailer is almost as much fun as the movie. You can see this wonderful movie on Hulu.