Thelma * * * ½

Thelma and Ben: Not to be messed with.

This modest film is a lot of fun.

Apparently it's a first film for writer/director Josh Margolin.  It's certainly isn't for 95 year old June Squibb in the lead role.  She plays a little old lady who gets scammed out of ten thousand dollars.  Unfortunately she doesn't  have a Jason Stratham to sort things out (see The Beekeeper) so she has to do it herself.  However she has been inspired by Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. A theme that recurs throughout the film. 

Ben is an old friend of Thelma.  She hasn't seen him for a while but she knows he has a motor scooter so she asks to borrow it.  But she can't have it without him.  So he's along for the ride.

A road trip travelling to the next suburb on a geriatric scooter.

The person closest to her otherwise is her Grandson. A lovely young man with overprotective parents  He  has achieved nothing with his life and is now painfully aware of it .  

Malcolm McDowell, is excellent as the pathetic exploiter in cahoots with his misled nephew.

For a younger director Margolin has been paying a lot of attention.  The situation of the elderly is well portrayed as they talk about their use by date, their increasing dependency and their ever reducing circle of friends who have died or lost their memories.

Thelma has a tight script that is genuinely funny and touching with a hero who shows as much grit as any tough guy.