A Lost Alien Crosses Paths with a Lonely Senior

Jane Curtin, Harriet Sansom Harris, Ben
Kingsley, and Jade Quon in "Jules"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

When it comes to movies about aliens visiting our planet, one of the definitive films to focus on that is Steve Spielberg’s masterful “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”  Telling the story of an alien befriending an alienated boy, Elliot, it was a humorous and deeply poignant story that showed a wonderful metaphor for their journey of trying to reach their loved ones, whether it be literal in E.T.’s sense, or figurative in Elliot’s.

It’s impossible for think of something coming close to what Spielberg has done on an emotional level.  But, if a movie from today handles a story like that, we can’t hold it up against the standard of what Spielberg accomplished.  I mean, it’s Spielberg; he’s on a whole other level.  However, if you want a sweet, low-key movie that features humans interacting with an otherworldly visitor, you’ll get that with director Marc Turtletaub’s “Jules.”

In a small-town suburb, Milton Robinson (Ben Kingsley) is a 79-year-old widower who lives alone, going through his life attending town meetings and doing household chores.  One night, an alien (Jade Quon) crashes in his yard.  Realizing that the alien doesn’t mean any harm, Milton and his friends decide to name him Jules and help him find what he needs to get back home.

Kingsley gives a wonderful performance as a man who just wants to not be ignored by the community because of his age.  Visiting town hall meetings week after week, Kingsley shows his character’s love for his community, always making the same suggestions, but being shrugged off by the officials.  There’s a loving nature to his performance as he houses Jules and experiences a connection that’s been lost with other citizens in his elderly age.  Kingsley creates an endearing character who isn’t a get-off-my-lawn caricature, but is instead someone who’s trying to maintain old bonds that he seems to be losing, while also embracing the new ones that appear in his life.

Accompanying Kingsley are some humorous and warm supporting performances from Jane Curtin and Harriet Sansom Harris as Melvin’s friends, Joyce and Sandy, respectively.  They have great chemistry with Kingsley, be it comical or emotional, and they’re all great to watch together as they help their intergalactic visitor.  Meanwhile, Quon gives a terrific performance where her character doesn’t have any dialogue, so she must use her body movements and facial expressions to show Jules trying to absorb the details his strange new environment.  It’s an engaging performance as you see him try to grasp aspects of human life, and then eventually understand what he examines. 

The screenplay by Gavin Steckler hinders from time to time with an awakened tonal shift, but other than that, it manages to be an unexpectedly moving look at aging and needing to connect when it seems like others are brushing you aside.  There are affecting layers to the characters that aren’t overplayed for emotional impact, but rather feel organic in how they’re portrayed.  Aside from that, there are a couple of instances where the story evades our expectations when it comes to what might be focused on in terms of plot strands, showing that even though this type of story seems familiar, it still has some other things in mind in terms of what to expect, or not expect.  Excluding the occasional odd change in tone, there are other instances where the film’s subversion of expectations ends up helping the narrative leave an impact, which makes this movie a little deeper than you’d believe.

Turtletaub handled emotional isolation in his 2018 drama, “Puzzle.”  Just as he did with that film, he looks at a person’s need to connect without making it cloying.  He does it in such a way that exudes a feeling of warmth as you view the characters when they handle loneliness and try to create bonds with others.  This is a small-scale story, but Turtletaub gets equal amounts of humor and emotion out of the narrative and manages to get things back on track in between the couple of awkward tonal shifts.

With its look at growing older and the importance of maintaining relationships later in life, “Jules” is a heart-warmer that shows how, sometimes, some of the strongest connections are the ones between totally different beings.

Grade: A-