John Hurt's character, Robert Burger, is a former bank employee who, after robbing his place of work, ran off with his mistress, Dorothea (Karen Young). They arrive in a small Texas beach town on the same day as a family who have a daughter, Elizabeth (Ellie Raab). Elizabeth quickly becomes friends, after being forcibly introduced by her father, with Thelma (Cassie Barasch), a local girl with a dead father, a photographer brother who is screwing a local house-cleaner and a mother who is as good at paying attention to her kids as Casey Anthony. Thelma is a fan of old B movies, rock n roll and violent news stories.
While nowadays she would just become an internet reviewer, there was no internet in 1989. Thelma and Elizabeth end up meeting Robert and Dorothea, and while Dorothea is paranoid and distrusting, Robert quickly befriends the two girls. This is a huge mistake. The two girls end up guiding them to their rental house (this being pre-Pædo Hunt, nobody sees a problem with young girls getting in a stranger's car). After Robert tells them that Dorothea is his wife, Thelma points out to Elizabeth that Dorothea is not his wife, as she lacks a wedding ring (he has one, though). That night, they try to spy on them, but get caught.
The next day, at Thelma's ninth birthday party, which a fair portion of the extremely small town is at, Robert shows up and tries to not only trick Thelma into thinking he's secretly a secret agent, but bribes her with a camera, which she had said she wanted. This is one of the biggest mistakes in the history of John Hurt characters. From there, it just keeps on going downhill.
The film is little known, though it aired on The BBC at least once, and it's now on Netflix.
Tropes:
- Ax-Crazy: Thelma has absolutely no qualms with murdering even her best friend to get what she wants or For the Evulz.
- Amoral Attorney: Mentioned by the cops after killing Robert.
- Artistic License – Biology: Elizabeth. So, you've just taken a bullet to the arm, a bullet to the gut and then spent at least several minutes face-down in either the Pacific or the Gulf of Mexico. A band-aid to the head is all you need!
- The Bad Guy Wins
- Big Brother Bully: Inverted. The big brother is easily lorded over by his blackmailing little sister.
- Blackmail: The entire plot is about blackmail.
- Break the Cutie: Elizabeth.
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California Doubling: The film is filmed in Florida, but set in Texas. - The Chessmaster: Thelma.
- Children Are Innocent: Not just averted, but beaten into submission.
- Consummate Liar: Thelma. She tricks pretty much everybody right up to the end of the film. Even after he's been tricked by her many times before, Robert is still able to be tricked by her.
- Corruption of a Minor by a Minor: Thelma, a psychotic, sociopathic 9-year-old, turns Elizabeth, a normal 9-year-old, into her spying and blackmail accomplice.
- Creepy Child: Thelma, again. One may also see Elizabeth this way.
- Cute and Psycho: Thelma.
- Devil in Plain Sight: Seriously, Thelma's just creepy in general, and seemingly nobody but Dorothea can tell.
- The Dog Bites Back: Robert tries to do this, but gets the wrong person.
- Enfant Terrible: Thelma.
- Evil Versus Evil: It's a bank robber and cheater vs. a psychotic little girl.
- Hope Spot: Elizabeth is still alive, but then again, the police are hardly going to want to have to deal with the fact they killed an unarmed bank robber, not a murderer, and who's going to believe her?
- Ironic Echo: After Thelma decides to kill Elizabeth, Elizabeth tries to talk her down by saying that they're friends. Cue Thelma purposely invoking this trope, as Elizabeth had said they weren't friends after the last time Thelma pointed a gun at her.
- It's All About Me: Thelma, for the millionth time.
- Insistent Terminology: Thelma is not "kid", she's Thelma, and she will remind you of this.
- Karma Houdini: Thelma. For a nine year old who tricked the police, blackmailed and robbed two people, got one killed by the police to shut him up, tried to kill her only friend and blackmailed her brother, she gets ice cream.
- Kids Are Cruel: Thelma. Elizabeth is a borderline example, but only due to Thelma.
- Kids Versus Adults: Scaled down, but still present.
- Lack of Empathy: If you hadn't guessed, Thelma.
- Little Miss Badass: Thelma, of course. Her aim is horrible, but she still manages to shoot Elizabeth twice.
- Loners Are Freaks: Thelma again. She mentions that Elizabeth is her only friend, and seems to prefer watching TV over most other things.
- Magic Skirt: Averted.
- Manipulative Bastard: Really, does this even need to read "Thelma" before you know that, once again, it's Thelma? She's just as good at manipulating emotions as people.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Elizabeth. Nobody likes having their "friend" aim a gun at them.
- The New Rock & Roll: Being 1989, an elderly side character switches a music video of a rock star and switches to a televangelist.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Thelma will shoot you if you're ruining everything. Or get you shot by the cops.
- Pædo Hunt: Averted. No one seems to blink at a grown man giving an expensive camera to a young girl he just met.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Robert tries to do this to Thelma.
- Redemption Earns Life: Elizabeth survives getting shot in the arm and chest, as well as being face down in ocean water for several minutes... somehow.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Elizabeth, or not as the last few seconds show.
- Shout-Out: A visual shout out, one of the many sets of sunglasses the girls own are heart-shaped glasses.
- Thelma watches many B movies, including Night of the Living Dead (1968), which seems to be airing extremely out of order.
- The Sociopath: Thelma.
- Tagline: "She's spying on two strangers, she's about to murder her best friend and she's only 9 years old!"
- Title Drop: Given sarcastically by Robert (John Hurt).
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Spying, blackmail, watching people have sex in real life, attempted murder, murder-by-cop, and watching B horror movies and rock music videos. Oh, and watching porn.
- Unexplained Recovery: Elizabeth, you got shot twice and then were face down in the ocean for at least five minutes, seeing as the fishing boat isn't a speed boat and was far away. How the HELL are you not dead?
- Villain Protagonist: All four of the main characters are criminals, but Thelma takes the cake by being the main character and the most evil.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Thelma. She's much better at planning crimes than most normal criminals (certainly better that the standard criminals she's dealing with) and is one of the few villains who will just kill you if you get in the way.
