The first few minutes of Thelma set the tone for what is to come: the title character is knitting, sitting on her couch at home next to her grandson, watching Ethan Hunt running and jumping from one building to another in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. The two comment on Tom Cruise’s longevity and madness in doing his own action sequences without stunt doubles.
The homage is not there by chance: the comedy directed by Josh Margolin plays with the world of spy films like M.I., James Bond, and the Bourne series by placing a 93-year-old woman at the center, living alone after being widowed from her husband of 68 years. The mission is not to save the world, but to recover the $10,000 Thelma gave to a scammer after being tricked in a phone call (did you think this was a Brazilian privilege?).
Now, while Tom Cruise, Daniel Craig, and Matt Damon climb mountains, face the strongest men in the world with their bare hands, run miles through paradisiacal cities being shot at from all sides, and escape unharmed, Thelma’s challenges are more everyday but no less challenging for her. We’re talking about crossing blocks alone, learning to close an unwanted ad with an invisible X that appears at the worst moment, messing with social media, climbing onto a bed and hanging from the top of a cupboard to grab a gun, and escaping from a nursing home on a ‘powerful’ scooter that barely reaches 35 km/h.
The parody doesn’t prevent hard truths about the finitude of life, the fragility of old age, and the loneliness from the passing of an entire generation, where all those you knew are gone or abandoned, like in the brilliant sequence at Mona’s (Bunny Levine) house. In fact, it is there that Thelma reaches the peak of brilliance in combining drama with humor, touching hearts by showing that woman alone with the cockroaches, but ending in the hilarious search for the gun.
The greatest fortune of the film, undoubtedly, is having June Squibb to lead the story brilliantly. At 95 years old, the actress, who had already shown her comedic talent in Nebraska, here carries Thelma with an impressive vitality, seamlessly transitioning from comedy to drama in the same scene in the blink of an eye. One of the greatest performances in cinema in 2024, regardless of award season nominations.
Thelma may not be brilliant — there’s a huge sense of boredom whenever the film shifts its focus from the main character to the grandson’s insecurities or the overprotectiveness of the young man’s parents, unnecessarily forcing a narrative that connects different generations — but it doesn’t fall into clichés or politically correct discourses about ageism. With good humor and intelligence, it offers a realistic perspective on this stage of life, one that does require care but can also be lived with small doses of adventure.
