Thelma Review: 94-Year-Old June Squibb Stars In Her Own Version Of Mission: Impossible [Sundance]

One afternoon, 93-year-old Thelma (June Squibb) receives a harried call from her beloved grandson, Danny (Fred Hechinger), saying he's in jail and desperately needs help. Thelma can tell his voice sounds slightly off, but when she asks him about it, he says the accident that landed him in jail resulted in a broken nose, accounting for the difference in his voice. Danny tells her a defense attorney will be calling her momentarily to make arrangements to get him out, and when the other man calls Thelma, he tells her she needs to mail $10,000 in cash to an address across town in order to get Danny out as quickly as possible. Thelma calls her daughter (Parker Posey) and son-in-law (Clark Gregg), Danny's parents, but neither answers. So, dutifully, she gathers the cash and mails it to the address — only to soon discover that Danny is actually fine. Thelma's been scammed.

The police won't do anything to help, and Thelma's family is worried that her mental acuity could be deteriorating. But Thelma is fine — she just wants her money back. Before the scam, she and Danny had marveled at Tom Cruise doing his own stunts in the "Mission: Impossible" movies, so, inspired by Cruise, Thelma takes it upon herself to go on a cross-town quest to try to get her cash back. Along the way, she recruits an old friend, Ben (the late Richard Roundtree, in his final on-screen performance), who lives in a retirement home and has a crucial piece of equipment Thelma needs: a scooter. When her family realizes she's missing and a frantic search ensues, the film's stakes increase and Thelma's mission becomes even more improbable.

Writer/director Josh Margolin, who's making his feature directorial debut, never plays the situation for laughs. A lazy approach would be to tell this story at a remove, giving the audience enough distance where we'd be tempted to look at these characters as if they're animals in a zoo. Aw, look at the cute old people! Aren't they precious? But according to the press notes for the film, "Thelma" is based on a real-life experience that happened to Margolin's grandmother (video footage of her appears briefly in the end credits), and you can feel that this is a personal movie for him. He treats this subject matter seriously. That's not to say there aren't moments of comedy, but when they come, they're never at the expense of the characters. There's no "rapping grandma" humor here — Thelma's plight is handled with respect, and by putting us in her perspective, Margolin allows us to empathize and see the world through her eyes. Considering how Hollywood typically treats elderly actors (and, frankly, how America treats its elderly population in general), this approach is extremely rare.

I'm racking my brain, and I think the 93-year-old Squibb (she's 94 now) just might be the oldest actor to play the protagonist in any movie I've ever seen. She's absolutely magnetic as Thelma — charming, loving, curious, and funny. Squibb has been acting for more than 70 years (she was previously nominated for an Academy Award for Actress in a Supporting Role in Alexander Payne's 2013 film "Nebraska"), but this is her first starring role, and she rises to meet the moment. It's the kind of performance where you can't take your eyes off her. She's fully dialed in; every single choice she makes as an actor feels like the exact right one.

While Tom Cruise sprints across rooftops and leaps across chasms in the "Mission: Impossible" movies, Squibb brings the same stubborn determination to her performance here — only Thelma's "stunts" are much more mundane. Thankfully, Margolin doesn't overplay this aspect of the movie. It's not shot like an action film, or stylized for laughs. Nick Chuba's jazzy score certainly recalls the music of the classic spy franchise, but the closest this film comes to a spy operation is an amusing set piece in which Richard Roundtree's Ben serves as the Simon Pegg to Thelma's Cruise, utilizing her hearing aid to guide her through a series of obstacles.

This is Squibb's movie, but her co-stars are no slouches, either. Posey and Gregg bring solid comedic timing, Roundtree is fantastic, brimming with life and humanity, and Hechinger does a lot with a somewhat underwritten character, bringing a soft tenderness to the role of Danny. His character shares the strongest bond with Thelma, and it eventually becomes a two-pronged tale of development for both of them; they both feel boxed in and want to break free, and the movie ends up being about how independence may not the best way to live — community and connection are crucial.

Sweet, charming, and uplifting, "Thelma" is a joy to watch. It's the type of movie that will make you want to call your grandparents.

/Film Rating: 8 out of 10