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‘Jules’ Review: Close Encounters of the Lonely Kind
Ben Kingsley plays an elderly man struggling with a fading memory when an extraterrestrial crashes into his life.
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By Claire Shaffer
Generally speaking, alien movies tend to go one of either two ways: horror or tenderness. Marc Turtletaub’s “Jules” falls squarely in the latter category — the titular alien who crash-lands in small-town Pennsylvania is a vegetarian, and eats apple slices given to him by his genial human host.
But while the film’s premise will be familiar to anyone whose parents sat them down in front of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Jules” replaces the usual child protagonists with a trio of baffled senior citizens, all of whom find kinship with the alien’s outsider status and know too well what will happen if word gets out on his arrival to Earth.
Milton (Ben Kingsley) is struggling with a fading memory and a strained relationship with his adult daughter (Zoë Winters), whose insistence that he see a psychiatrist escalates when he tells her an alien spaceship destroyed his bird bath. When his pleas for help with the small gray alien are ignored by the other townsfolk, Milton invites the injured extraterrestrial, played by Jade Quon, into his home, and the two quickly form a bond. (Despite Jules — Milton’s nickname for the alien — being nonverbal, he appears to perfectly understand English.) Before long, Milton’s neighbors Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtin) learn of the visitor and, noticing all the suited government officials that have mysteriously arrived in town, decide to help Milton keep their new friend a secret.
Underneath its ridiculous framing and outer-space high jinks, “Jules” is full to the brim with empathy for its elderly characters and their desire for personal agency. Kingsley’s performance as Milton injects dignity into a character that could have easily (and cruelly) been played just for laughs, and Harris and Curtin provide similar complexities to their respective roles. In Jules, all three of them are reminded of the importance of companionship in their lives, and how isolation in their old age has made each of them desperately cling to what little they have left. It’s a realization that leads Joyce, with Jules’s help, to finally say goodbye to her aging cat, in a funeral scene that’s as heartwarming as it is absurd.
Turtletaub keeps the film’s campier elements to a minimum, preferring to highlight the quaint suburban setting and a lighthearted, understated sense of humor. “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” this is not, and despite Jules being a threat to national security, it often feels as though Turtletaub would rather you be curled up in your seat with a mug of cocoa than on the edge of it. But the sweetness isn’t entirely unwelcome — not every alien movie can be “Alien.”
Jules Rated PG-13 for language and some cartoon sci-fi violence. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters.
- Cast & crew
- User reviews
Milton lives a quiet life of routine in a small western Pennsylvania town, but finds his day upended when a UFO and its extra-terrestrial passenger crash land in his backyard. Milton lives a quiet life of routine in a small western Pennsylvania town, but finds his day upended when a UFO and its extra-terrestrial passenger crash land in his backyard. Milton lives a quiet life of routine in a small western Pennsylvania town, but finds his day upended when a UFO and its extra-terrestrial passenger crash land in his backyard.
- Marc Turtletaub
- Gavin Steckler
- Ben Kingsley
- Harriet Sansom Harris
- Jane Curtin
- 105 User reviews
- 70 Critic reviews
- 57 Metascore
- 1 win & 5 nominations
Top cast 34
- (as Harriet Harris)
- Mayor Martinez
- Councilwoman Wu
- Councilman Daniels
- Councilwoman Strauss
- Steve Gorham
- Councilman Bouchard
- (as Zoë Winters)
- Anchor Aaron Campbell
- Hippie Woman
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
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Did you know
- Trivia Transforming actress Jade Quon into the alien took the makeup team four hours, none of the prosthetics were reusable, and new ones were constantly being made. The original plan was for Quon to get into makeup 12-15 times max, but it ended up being 30.
Chief : Heads don't just explode.
- Crazy credits There are no opening credits nor title reference until the end after cast and crew credits.
- Connections References CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000)
- Soundtracks Tamarind Written by Anthony Mawer Courtesy of APM Music
User reviews 105
- Sep 16, 2023
- How long is Jules? Powered by Alexa
- August 11, 2023 (United States)
- United States
- Boonton, New Jersey, USA (Elliott Ruga, Town of Boonton resident)
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Aug 13, 2023
Technical specs
- Runtime 1 hour 27 minutes
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