The most marvelous thing about “Thelma” is how its lead actress makes the movie more special in addition to being perfectly cast for her titular role. Although she is soon going to have the 95th birthday, June Squibb has been more prominent than before as one of the most dependable character actresses in Hollywood since her late Oscar-nominated breakthrough turn in Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” (2013), and now she gladly takes the center at last as bringing a lot of heart and spirit to the film.

At the beginning, we get to know a bit about the daily life of Squibb’s character. Although she is over 90, Thelma does not have much problem with living alone in her residence located somewhere in a suburban neighborhood around LA. While her daughter and son-in-law are usually too busy to pay much attention to her, her adult grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger) is the one who occasionally comes to her house and handles his grandmother’s daily matters because, well, there is nothing much to do for him besides that at present, and there is an amusing moment when he patiently guides her on how to use the Internet with her computer.

On one day, Thelma receives a call supposedly from her grandson, which urgently requests her to send a substantial amount of cash as the bail to get him out of a county jail as soon as possible. Needless to say, this turns out to be a voice-phishing scam, and she belatedly comes to realize that not long after sending the money via mail. While consoled a bit by her family members, she soon becomes determined to locate that voice-phishing criminal, and, fortunately, there is the address for a certain P.O. box where her cash was sent.

However, Thelma still needs a bit of extra help, so she looks for any friend who may help her, but she is reminded again of how her life has been getting smaller and emptier. Many of her friends were gone in one way or another, but a certain close friend of hers is still alive and well in a local facility for old people. That person in question is Ben (Richard Roundtree), and he happens to have an electronic 2-person scooter. Despite his initial reluctance, he eventually joins Thelma’s rather risky quest, and Thelma surely feels a little more excited for having her friend behind her.

As these two characters are slowly moving toward their final destination, the movie takes some time for more character development. At one point, Thelma and Ben drop by an old friend of theirs for a certain hidden purpose, and the mood becomes humorous when Thelma is trying to find something upstairs while Ben is buying time downstairs, but they also notice how things have been depressingly static and barren for their friend, who simply seems to be spending her whole day in her living room sofa.

While being reminded more of her approaching mortality, Thelma is not daunted at all because she is willing to go for more as enjoying her life, and we get a few comic scenes where she and Ben have to be a little more physically active. Although she is not as virile as Tom Cruise at all, Squibb demonstrates here that she can be quite feisty and spirited just like my grandmother who is also over 90 now, and we laugh more whenever her character seems to recognize someone in the past just like many old persons often do.

Meanwhile, the movie sometimes shifts its focus to Thelma’s family members including her grandson, who are certainly alarmed when she goes out for her little mission without telling them anything about that. Although this part feels rather perfunctory, the movie shows some care to these supporting characters as they come to show more sincerity as trying to locate where the hell Thelma is now. As Thelma’s daughter and son-in-law, Parker Posey and Clark Gregg provide extra humor to the film, and Fred Hechinger is also fine in his earnest supporting performance. Although Daniel may be your average slacker, he really cares a lot about his grandmother, and he also becomes a bit more serious about where his life has been going.

In the end, the story arrives at the expected climactic part along with Thelma and Ben, but the screenplay by director/writer/editor Josh Margolin does not hurry the story and characters at all even at that point. I will not go into details here for not spoiling the fun from the brief but effective appearance from a certain recognizable actor, but I can tell you instead that Squibb deftly holds the center to the end with the steady support from Richard Roundtree, who sadly passed away in last year.

Overall, “Thelma” is a small but charming comedy film which reminds me again of how fortunate I and many other moviegoers have been for watching Squibb appearing here and there in a number of various notable films such as Martin Scorsese’ “The Age of Innocence” (1993) and Todd Haynes’ “Far from Heaven” (2002). Believe or not, she actually began her acting career in 1948, and she only started to appear in movies after she made a debut in Woody Allen’s “Alice” (1990). According to Internet Movie Database (IMDB), she already has three new films to be added to her long filmography, and I sincerely hope that she will keep moving on during several more years at least while putting more dent on the ageism in Hollywood show business.