My Review of "Thelma"

Thelma is a fun family friendly movie that came out in 2024. It's sold as a rescue mission movie with a 93 year old character but it's really a coming of age story. This movie could have gone into different directions and in a way I wanted to see all possibilities. They decided to go the more realistic approach for this movie than my expected extreme comedy version.

The movie of course focuses on our 93 year old lead, Thelma. She's still grieving over the loss of her late husband and lives by herself. Her family is small but cares much about her. She seems closest to her grandson Daniel who seems to be in a bit of a fog on his outlook on life. Thelma's daughter and son in law are very capable and accomplished people. You can see that everyone is at different stages in their lives.

Everything catalyzes when Thelma gets a scam phone call. She's tricked into thinking Daniel was in trouble and she needed to send $10000 to get him out of trouble. Ultimately, everyone finds out that it was a scam but not before Thelma had sent off the money. Hurt by being deceived, Thelma seeks to get her money back.

To do this she's going to have to seek the help from her old friend Ben at the retirement home. The two of them sleuth their way in getting the resources and clues to solve this crime and get Thelma's money back. This isn't going to be easy. Being as old as they are they're not the most nimble of people, but they still have their wit and keen sense of adventure.

On the outset this movie looked like it was going to be an over the top comedy with Thelma getting into a ton of trouble. Yes, she does get into some mischief but she learns more about herself in the process. We often ignore the problems of the elderly because our primary focus in society is the youth. There are some eye opening moments when you realize some of the curses that come with old age. The neglect and the deterioration of your body and mind is silent. We don't even recognize the problems until someone tells us these are problems. With the elderly how is this possible when no one visits them? It becomes a self perpetuating down point for each of them.

This movie has a very bright heart to it that shines as each character understands their power in their relationship with others. It's something we should see in our own daily lives but are probably too busy to even realize. There are many truths to a lot of these scenarios that are very self reflecting. It's almost downright scary sometimes especially when you consider this movie is in an ideal situation. Not everyone has loving friends and family to support them like Thelma does. We see that situation with Thelma's friend Mona. It's a sad situation but millions of senior citizens are suffering the same way.

There's such a ray of light that emits from Thelma and her friend Ben that you can't help but fall in love with their characters. Their relationship is very warm and inviting.

This movie is a very different pace from what I'm used to. It's much slower than the typical movie but that's to be expected as it's about senior citizens. Though I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get too many ridiculous scenes. There are so many situations that had so much potential to be bonkers but ended up rather tame. Then again that would have ruined the whole consistency of the movie.

Overall, I thought it was a fun movie that brings up a lot of conversation. There were a number of funny scenes that all can enjoy. It's a wholesome movie that everyone can enjoy as well. I'll have to give this one a 7 out of 10. Pretty well done and I hope they continue to make movies like this for the theatres.