Thelma

Cert - 12

Run-time - 1 hour 38 minutes

Director - Josh Margolin

After being scammed over the phone, 93-year-old Thelma (June Squibb) hijacks a mobility scooter and sets out to get her money back.

Often, the term geri-action conjures thoughts of Liam Neeson grumbling with a gun or an all-star cast getting together for another Expendables flick. From now on, I'll be thinking about June Squibb riding around California on a mobility scooter. Does she also have a gun? Yes. Does she know how to use it? No, but how hard can it be? "Idiots use them all the time," she tells friend Ben (Richard Roundtree - in his final film role) who joins her for the journey.

Squibb's 93-year-old Thelma Post spends her time sewing and getting her grandson, Daniel (Fred Heichinger), to teach her how to use computer. However, after a scammer (Malcolm McDowell) claims that Daniel has been involved in an accident and money needs to be sent to sort things out, she sends all the money she has in the house to the address given. After discovering the truth Thelma gives Jason Statham a break and sets out to confront the scammers herself, without her concerned family (Parker Posey, Clark Gregg) noticing.

It's amazing just how amusing watching Squibb and Roundtree cruise around the Californian streets can be. Both give enjoyable performances that manage to also capture a good deal of heart during more, perhaps even unexpectedly, dramatic moments. Elements which lean away from the comedy and into more serious reflections on aging; Thelma rattling off which of her friends she no longer sees for lunch because they're dead or can't get out contrasts with seeing an old friend's mind having deteriorated.

Early on we see Thelma sat with Daniel watching Mission: Impossible - Fallout, amazed at Tom Cruise's pace and stunts. While Squibb may not be leaping between buildings, moments which parody such franchises have plenty of laughs - watching her quietly creep around someone's house searching for a gun is a highlight. There are occasional likable motifs here and there, and something almost refreshing about the fact that Thelma and Ben aren't completely technologically inept - we see Thelma using Instagram, even if most of her posts are of random items or places directly in front of her.

While cuts back to Thelma's family in the retirement home she was last seen visiting, waiting for news of where she might be, don't always land the hoped for dramatic impact, they generally tend to be brief before we jump back to the action of the titular OAP and her friend, who wants to get back to his home, and its plentiful varieties of much-praised melon, in time for a performance of Annie where he's playing 'Daddy' Warbucks.

Squibb and Roundtree both provide strong performances which bring out the comedy and help in the dramatic moments. Once Thelma's plan kicks in, once we've seen the opening stages of her day-to-day, things move smoothly and quickly for just over 90-minutes.

Four stars