Thelma

Synopsis

Thelma Post (June Squibb), 93, gets a phone call from a man claiming to be her grandson, Danny (Fred Hechinger), saying that he's being held at the police station after he ran into a pregnant woman with his car. When she asks why he sounds different, he explains that his nose was broken in the accident, and he needs her to send $10,000 in cash to a P.O. box.

Thelma, who lives alone in the house she shared with her late husband, is very close to Danny — he visits and/or calls her every day, helps her figure out various things on her computer and makes sure she's wearing her watch alarm, in case anything happens to her. No longer able to drive, she takes a cab to the post office to mail the $10,000.

When it turns out that she's been scammed — Danny was never in an accident and didn't answer his phone because he was sleeping — everyone is relieved, including his parents, whom Thelma called. However, they begin to discuss putting Thelma in assisted living, so she decides she's going to get her money back from the scammers, no matter what it takes.

Inspired by a real-life experience of writer-director Josh Margolin's own grandmother.

Cast

June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, Richard Roundtree, Clark Gregg, Parker Posey, Malcolm McDowell