TMS Movie Review: Jules

(Bleecker Street Films)

Marc Turtletaub’s Jules almost deliberately feels very much like Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Instead of little Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore in suburban southern California, we have an Oscar winner [Ben Kingsley], an Emmy winner [Jane Curtin], and suburban New England. But unlike the many, various E.T. rip-offs we’ve received since the 1980s, Jules does successfully manage to have its own charm. It helps that even though the concept isn’t entirely original, it’s also been decades since the initial film’s release, so a new spin on it doesn’t feel as stale as yet another sequel, adaptation or addition of a currently popular franchise.

In E.T., there’s an off-screen, absent father and a well-meaning, but oblivious, single mother played by Dee Wallace. In Jules, we get an absent grown-up son and a caring, concerned adult daughter, Denise (Zoe Winters). Denise is worried about her elderly, widowed father, Milton (Kingsley), who is showing signs of dementia lately. He regularly attends public city hall meetings and watches TV at home. When Milton starts telling people a spaceship has crash landed in his backyard with a little spaceman inside, no one takes him seriously. Except for two neighbors, Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Curtin), who have seen the supposed alien while visiting Milton.

(Bleecker Street Films)

Jade Quon performs in a full body costume as the extraterrestrial title character. Jules does for senior citizens approaching mortality what E.T. did for children coming of age. The aliens in both films are metaphorical as much as literal in terms of the protagonist finding someone who also feels like an outsider in their environment. Kingsley is fine as our lead and it’s nice to see him in a quaint and relaxed performance for a change; while Winters and Harris are naturally empathetic as the supporting women. Curtin—though always a fun bonus to comedies—does feel a little like an afterthought in the story, but has a nice back-and-forth between Kingsley and Harris. The humor and tone of Jules can run a bit corny and overly sentimental at times, but that might actually work for viewers of a certain age. Turtletaub, most known for his producing credits on movies like Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris’ Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and Jeff Nichols’ Loving (2016), continues to show he’s also a decent director following his previous effort with Puzzle (2018). While Gavin Steckler’s script for Jules could be a bit tighter with resolving the character arcs and subplots, the atmosphere and cast mostly make up for it.

Once in a while, you just want a cute, feel-good flick that ties everything together in a nice bow at the end. Jules pretty much does just that this August. And yes, in case you were wondering, there are government agents secretly monitoring the alien’s activity this time too.