Thelma (June Squibb) is a 93-year-old woman who lives alone. Her grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger) looks in on her from time to time, helps her with her computer, and has her back when she needs him. One night she gets a frantic call from Daniel, telling her he is in prison and needs $10,000 in cash right away to be sent to his lawyer. But it wasn’t Daniel. She falls for it.

When she realizes she has been scammed, she takes matters into her own hands. With her friend Ben (Richard Roundtree) she embarks on a journey around town to get her money back.

Thelma is lighthearted comedy with some feel-good elements and a lot of fairly demoralizing scenes. It casts a bright light on the plight of our seniors. They often live alone, even when they have a loving family, like Thelma, and watch their peers die away one by one. There are a number of scenes in an assisted-living home where we get to glance into lives of the tenants.

I am currently going through this with my own parents, who I always remembered as capable, independent, active and healthy. That is no longer the case, and they need care, lots of care in lots of situations. Our modern world does not offer good solutions for the elderly, and due to improved health care, the elderly are getting older.

Thelma was funny and light, but I walked out of the theater somber and almost depressed. It made me think of my own life, and the fact there there is a lot less sand in the top of my hourglass than there is in the bottom, and it made me wonder how much Thelma there is in me already.

If the objective of the movie was to make us think about our lives – I guess it met the objective.