‘Thelma’ Offers Amusing Take on Elder Fraud

Actress June Squibb had to wait 93 years to star in a Hollywood film but finally found her leading lady role in “Thelma,” an occasionally plausible tale about how an older Jewish lady takes on the world and, in her own inimitable way, wins. In real life, Squibb has spent most of her adult life as a convert to Judaism.

“Thelma” had its Atlanta premiere at the Tara Theatre last month in a screening sponsored by the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.

This gentle comedy tells the story of a feisty elderly woman who loses $10,000 in a telephone scam and then tracks down the conmen to get her money back. To help, she enlists the aid of a friend, played by the venerable 81-year-old actor Richard Roundtree, who died last fall before the film was released.

The film, which is loosely based on director Josh Margolin’s grandmother, who was also called Thelma, retains some of the real-life drama that comes with growing old in America. It walks a fine line by portraying the elderly as they navigate relationships with friends and family and life.

It was not only a first for Squibb, a talented supporting actress, who has a long list of well-reviewed credits in film and television and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress more than a decade ago. The film also launches Margolin’s role behind the camera. This is his first film as a writer and director in a feature film, and he even edited it.

The film, from its outset, humorously explores how families relate across the generational divide when a crisis is at hand. Thelma’s daughter, Gail, played by Parker Posey, and her husband, Alan, played by Clark Greer, when they learn of Thelma’s loss begin to think that maybe it’s time to end her life of independence in her own home and move her out to a senior care facility.

Thelma’s answer to her daughter’s reluctance to take her mother seriously launches the old woman on her own search for justice. She takes off with Roundtree and his motorized scooter on a quest to get her money back.

This is Hollywood, after all, where all things, no matter how unlikely, are possible. After skillfully sketching out the relationships between young and old, the film heads off into fantasy land.

If you really believe that a 93-year-old woman and her 81-year-old friend can safely navigate the complex world that is contemporary Los Angeles on a motorized scooter and live to talk about it, then perhaps you are not living in reality.

The painful truth is all too often gullible senior citizens fall for con games on the phone and the Internet that swiftly and skillfully fleece them of their life savings. And there is often little or nothing most of them can do about it.

According to a recent study by the American Association of Retired Persons, more than $28 billion is lost each year to elder fraud. And that figure may be a conservatives estimate, since many older persons are too ashamed to report that they have been taken.

According to the FBI, many schemes that bilk Americans out of billions don’t even originate in this country. Call centers in West Africa, Eastern Europe, or Southeast Asia are often the source of the fraud. The money that disappears into foreign bank accounts is mostly siphoned off in ways that make it nearly impossible to trace.

Crime targeting older Americans is up 84 percent, year to year, in the most recent report. The AARP advises that calls or texts requesting Social Security numbers or Medicare accounts are big red flags.

And it’s not just old folks who are vulnerable — everyone who has a smartphone or a computer is a target for what has been called Scam World, where the border that separates the real world from cyberspace has disappeared.

Local law enforcement, which has had limited success in going after the fraudsters, cautions that before you do something you might later regret, that you contact someone you trust for help.

Unfortunately, over two-thirds of all the money scammed from senior citizens comes from people they know, like family members, friends, or financial advisors.

Now that would make a truly interesting film, the socially complicated and complex effort to get your life savings back from a family member who’s walked off with your money. Maybe next year at the AJFF.

Meanwhile, “Thelma, “which had a short run in area theaters last month, has just been made available for viewing on streaming services and pay-per-view.