Jules (2023)

★★★½
When I read the premise for Jules, I imagined a fictionalized version of the story of a supposed U.F.O. that crashed in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania in 1965. I learned of the incident in a 1990 episode of Unsolved Mysteries, which I watched while growing up in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and it was kind of cool to see that such an event occurred in our part of the state. Maybe writer Gavin Steckler set his story for Jules in a fictional Western PA community (Boonton) because of the Kecksburg incident. As I watched the movie, I quickly realized that this was not a story of cover ups and mysterious government agents in radiation suits who take over a town and silence everyone under threat of violence. Instead, this is a surprisingly gentle tale that examines the difficulties of old age and its effects on the family. At one point I began to search for parallels with Ron Howard's Cocoon, but there were none. This is its own story, and director Marc Turtletaub tells it beautifully.

Milton (Ben Kingsley) is an eccentric senior citizen who lives alone and attends daily city council meetings to request a change to Boonton's slogan and recommend a new crosswalk be installed in order to prevent jaywalking tickets. He does this at every meeting. His daughter Denise (Zoë Winters) visits and helps him whenever she can, but lately she notices how he places things around the house where they don't belong, like canned vegetables in the bathroom medicine cabinet. She is worried about him, as any daughter would be. She brings up these lapses, but Milton is a proud man who chalks up these discoveries as the result of confusion or distraction. She thinks it's something more. Her position is not easy. She has to be the villain and bring up uneasy topics like assisted living, but she also has to expect his rejection of these ideas. Milton has a son who lives in California. They don't talk. We don't know if it has anything to do with Milton's decline in his mental state, but it could be.

A spaceship lands in Milton's backyard one night and destroys his azaleas. He doesn’t know what to make of it at first, but he starts talking about it. He calls 911. He brings it up during a city council meeting. The plot thickens when an alien stumbles out and collapses. Milton provides water and a blanket and eventually invites him inside. He doesn't talk, but he has very inquisitive eyes. Fellow Boonton resident Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) heard Milton's speech at the city council meeting, and she's curious. She comes over and meets the alien, whom they later dub Jules because… why not? It is not specifically explained that his name is inspired by Jules Verne, but I think that's the reason. The nosy Joyce (Jane Curtain) suspects some kind of relationship between Milton and Sandy. However, she peeks through the window and sees Jules, and now she becomes the third person to know the secret. I wondered if she might become a liability, but thankfully the script is smart enough not to do that.

Their interaction with Jules causes them to reflect on their own lives. Milton buys apples for Jules and explains to the teller that they are for the alien living with him. This explanation finds itself back to Denise, who begins to doubt her father's abilities even more. Joyce opens up to Jules. She was once a beauty in the big city with a social life, but now she lives in solitude in rural Pennsylvania. Her best friend is her cat, but her cat too is elderly. She could also sing, and she gives a solo performance of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" that she belts out in a manner that recalls her past life. It's a life she misses but had to let go when the wrinkles started to appear. Sandy doesn't talk to her daughter much. Maybe that's why she was quick to be friendly with Milton after his U.F.O. story to the council. It may have been preposterous, but he seemed sincere about it, so she takes the plunge. It was her idea not to report the alien. She has seen a lot of movies, so she has her suspicions on what the government would do if it found out about Jules.

The government does know about the ship and is trying to locate it. There is a race against the clock. The alien attempts to fix his ship, but it is missing a crucial ingredient that will allow it to fly. The clock is also ticking with Denise's patience. She arranges a mental exam for her father, and he begrudgingly accepts, but the results are not favorable. During his visit, though, Jules serves as a sounding board for his human minders. They talk to him. They reveal their fears and their challenges. They don't know if the alien comprehends, but they talk anyway because the eyes suggest empathy. Jules doesn't understand language, but he understands emotion. Jules is a fascinating creation. Stuntwoman Jade Quon wears the alien costume, which appears incredibly lifelike in every detail. Despite the layers of prosthetics, the freedom of movement is fluid, and Quon's graceful movements give the creature an otherworldly quality that is enigmatic yet nonthreatening.

Ben Kingsley plays Milton as a kindly old man with much more to prove in life. He is getting up there in age and showing signs of forgetfulness, but there's still plenty of gas left in the tank, and his experience with Jules will give him new ideas to ponder that make crosswalks and city slogans seem insignificant. Milton just needed someone to listen and not be accusatory. There might come a time when Milton can't take care of himself. That time isn't here yet, so why rush a scenario that is not guaranteed to happen? Jules is a lovely little tale filled with light humor that doesn't detract from the alien's positive effect on his curious new friends. Kingsley reminded me of Albert Finney's performance in Big Fish. Milton has a way of frustrating his daughter the way Finney's Ed Bloom did with his son, but they both win their children over because the kids come to understand that the time they have left with their surviving parent can be used to create more happy memories. More happy memories mean more to appreciate when we arrive at that phase of life.

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