'Jules' Review: Ben Kingsley Befriends an Alien in One of the Weirdest Movies of the Year – IndieWire

To look at Marc Turtletaub’s “Jules” — a middlebrow dramedy starring Ben Kingsley as a widowed, half-senile eccentric so determined for somebody to care about him that he casually befriends the alien who crashes into his yard — is to be reminded that actually unusual motion pictures have develop into laborious to seek out. As of late, a movie this uncommon is about as uncommon as a name from Milton’s estranged son, who hasn’t phoned dwelling in a number of years. 

Not that “Jules” would appear all that weird simply by taking a look at it. Quite the opposite, this modest late summer time whatsit appears to be like and feels similar to one million different milquetoast charmers geared toward audiences of a sure age, what with its reassuringly good rating and countless array of conflict-avoidant medium pictures. The distinction right here is that these medium pictures function Sir Ben Kingsley sitting on a sofa subsequent to a silent and seemingly bare extraterrestrial — performed with unnerving precision by stunt actress Jade Quon — who listens to him ramble about “C.S.I.” with the attentiveness of a besotted grandchild. 

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Is “Jules” an excellent film? For a movie that feels so milquetoast in most respects, I suppose that Gavin Steckler’s script is surprisingly sincere concerning the hardships of getting older, and its acquainted observations concerning the assist required to “survive” previous age really feel that a lot more energizing due to the weird path this story travels to succeed in them. Saddled with a floofy hairpiece that appears fittingly alien to the actor’s head, Kingsley can be keyed-in to his character from the beginning, his efficiency sustained by a cussed rejection of self-pity and a shaky refusal to indicate worry within the face of dying. 

Better of all, the opposite lonely weirdos in Milton’s western Pennsylvania Mayfield are performed by the reliably crude Jane Curtin, whose Joyce is obsessed together with her glory days of “going into the town,” and “Licorice Pizza” MVP Harriet Sansom Harris, whose Sandy is so determined for connection that she prints flyers inviting native teenagers to come back to her home and hearken to her tales. Sandy is extra of a plot system than a totally dimensional individual, however Harris makes essentially the most of each element, and her response to seeing Jules sitting on Milton’s sofa for the primary time contains one of many single best line deliveries I’ve heard in my whole life. 

And but, for all of these virtues, “Jules” isn’t higher than it’s weird, and it’s solely towards the very finish — someday after the titular alien’s mysterious obsession with cats is clarified within the weirdest manner potential — that the movie’s emotionality isn’t utterly overshadowed by its oddness.

In fact, that oddness isn’t unintended. Turtletaub could also be extra completed as a producer than he’s as a director, however he has a sturdy grasp on this materials, and he does all the things in his energy to make sure that “Jules” displays the twin strangenesses of Milton’s state of affairs: The outstanding strangeness of somebody turning their sofa into an Airbnb for aliens, and the all too widespread strangeness of somebody being deceived by their getting older mind (Milton is simply beginning to misplace issues, which suggests he’s additionally simply on the cusp of realizing that he’ll by no means cease). 

Whereas “Jules” has some enjoyable with how simply a kind of phenomena may be used to clarify the opposite, the movie isn’t practically deft sufficient to flee the slender tractor beam of its premise. Painful as it’s that Turtletaub devotes a lot of his first act to a repetitive sequence of (each day?) public conferences during which Milton and the remainder of the native kooks complain to the mayor about altering the city slogan and issues of that nature, the choice is made that a lot worse by the eventual realization that we solely sat by all these scenes in order that we could possibly be in on the joke when everybody rolls their eyes at Milton’s complaints concerning the spaceship that’s supposedly crashed in his yard and ruined his azaleas. 

That mismatch between funding and payoff is a recurring motif in a film that’s typically too content material with its personal weirdness to work on every other grounds. “Jules” isn’t humorous sufficient or heartbreaking sufficient or something sufficient to meaningfully broaden on its fundamental thought, and any a part of it that doesn’t immediately contain the alien itself suffers consequently. “Succession” actress Zoë Winters is particularly frolicked to dry as Milton’s daughter, her character decreased to a dwelling image of the begrudging tolerance that adults typically have for his or her burdensome dad and mom.

Happily, each time Jules is on display, weirdness alone is greater than sufficient to make this factor watchable. Completely straddling the road between cute and creepy, Quon’s discomfiting efficiency does extra with a latex bodysuit and a pair of chilly black eyes than a fortune’s price of CGI may ever hope to perform. Jules’ tactile and ultra-attentive presence lends even essentially the most harmless scenes an implicit sense sense of hazard, and at sure factors the sight of the alien on Milton’s sofa is ominous sufficient to make you marvel if the film’s good and breezy post-Miramax vibe may be one thing of a entice; it isn’t, however one horrible second of violence means that Turtletaub was at the very least considering alongside these strains. 

In Quon’s fingers, Jules is ready to stay without delay each curious and curiosity itself, frighteningly unknown however endlessly fascinated by what Milton and his mates may need to say. Jules is the affected person ear these folks have all the time needed, even when it’s unclear whether or not these jagged stab wounds on the facet of its head are technically ears within the first place. The alien can be an invite for Milton, Joyce, and Sandy to listen to themselves in a brand new manner — to provide voice to the ache they’ve been compelled to swallow since life started taking valuable issues from them. Typically, this peculiarly amusing movie argues in its personal particular manner, coming face-to-face with the weirdness that life throws your manner may be crucial step in direction of studying easy methods to reside with it. 

Grade: C+

Bleecker Avenue will launch “Jules” in theaters on Friday, August 11.

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