Jules (2023)

Jules takes place in a small Western Pennsylvania town named Boonton, which is located just south of Pittsburgh. It’s one of those communities that seems to only exist in the movies where everyone knows everyone else’s business. For some reason, the town holds counsel meetings every week. Milton (Ben Kingsley) shows up to each meeting to earnestly express his displeasure with the town’s motto and his concern about the need for a crosswalk at a dangerous intersection.

Milton is 78 years old and appears to be developing early onset dementia. His daughter, Denise (Zoe Winters,) encourages him to see a doctor when she finds a can of green beans in his bathroom medicine cabinet. She gets extremely concerned when Milton casually starts telling people that a spaceship crash-landed in his backyard and crushed his azaleas. Milton might be losing a step mentally but he’s telling the truth about the spaceship. In fact, not only has a spaceship crashed, its sole occupant has taken up residence in Milton’s home.

Luckily, no one believes Milton’s claims about the alien or the spaceship. At least not until Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris,) one of his elderly acquaintances from the city counsel meetings, comes over for a visit. She discovers the extraterrestrial nonchalantly sitting on Milton’s couch watching TV and eating apple slices. Sandy tells Milton that they must keep the alien hidden from the rest of the townsfolk at least long enough until he can repair his spaceship. Bad things might happen to him, you know, like in the movies.

Eventually, both Milton and Sandy both find themselves telling the creature things that they haven’t told anyone before. His strange silence gives them the opportunity to unload their secrets. When the town snoop, Joyce (Jane Curtin,) finds out about the alien, she threatens to blow the whistle on their secret. That is, until she also becomes taken with the alien’s comforting presence. The trio nickname him Jules and, since Jules never speaks, all three of them form an unconventional bond with him in their own unspoken way. And, of course, they bond with each other as well.

At first Jules, the movie, appears that its going to take the route that no one will see Jules but Milton, leaving the viewer to think, “Oh, this is all in his mind, isn’t it?” The script, by Gavin Steckler, stretches believability by making people act awfully strange even for those in a movie featuring an alien living with an elderly man. But, thankfully, after Sandy sees the alien — and has her hilariously out-of-character reaction when she does — the movie settles into a comfortably fun little plot about three elderly people battling the stigmas of aging as well as making friends with an extraterrestrial.

A thread of sadness and loss runs through the film as Milton ponders both the mistakes he’s made with his children and the future deterioration of his mind. Sandy tries to connect with the youth of Boonton as a mentor in a way to feel relevant again. Joyce can’t seem to let go of her younger, wilder days in the big city. There are a lot of beautiful little moments that just don’t coalesce into a great movie experience. As emotionally affecting as it tries to be, Jules can’t quite elicit the reaction it’s striving to get. It’s amusing and charming, yes, but, unfortunately, it just misses the mark.