Jules’ wacky premise — an extra-terrestrial crash-lands in eccentric widower Milton’s (Ben Kingsley) flowerbeds — is a bit of a misdirection. While the movie is technically a sci-fi (featuring, as it does, some very out-there alien engineering), it’s really a charming, mostly-human drama about the isolation and surreality of aging.
Though the mute presence of the alien (nicknamed Jules and played brilliantly by a totally silent Jade Quon) is a constant reminder of the expansiveness of the universe and strange wonders yet to be discovered, the movie keeps its feet firmly on the ground with a sensitive exploration of just how small the worlds of lonely, dementia-struck Milton and two other isolated elderly townspeople (Jane Curtin and Harriet Sansom Harris) are. Rather than expand outwards into a story about the extra-terrestrial itself, Jules focuses on the painful disorientation felt by its lonely trio of protagonists, who all find therapeutic relief and connection by way of the alien and its “understanding eyes.” Though the movie’s zany forays into sci-fi territory do sometimes boggle the mind, they never undermine the genuine emotion in Jules’ raw grappling with the experience of aging, as well as give the movie a quirky charm that ensures you won’t see anything like this again soon — an increasingly rare experience in itself.
"a gentle, somewhat mawkish allegory of Milton’s encroaching twilight years – for coinciding with Jules’ arrival is the early onset of the widower’s cognitive decline, so that he too is on a slow, difficult journey both home and heavenwards."
— Anton Bitel
"Sensitive, intelligent, sweet, and presented with considerable integrity, right down to the direction, which is scrupulous in not showing anything that doesn't actually need to be seen."
— Matt Zoller Seitz
A flying saucer lands in the backyard of an elderly suburbanite with memory problems, who forms a bond with the scared alien inside.
The unexpected arrival of an alien in a sleepy town up-ends the lives of lonely Milton (Ben Kingsley) and his equally isolated neighbors Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtin).
With her role featuring no dialogue whatsoever, Quon has the difficult job of operating on vibes alone if we’re to believe that a silent alien could have such a profound effect on the movie’s three human characters. The physical nature of the part was probably made even more complicated by the heavy prosthetics used for the character (no green screens here — another point for novelty) but Quon rises to the challenge and instantly establishes Jules as an endearing presence, one you can easily believe would elicit the (often hilarious) outpourings that the trio gush out. It’s a lovely performance, one that's all the more impressive for how much wholesomeness it exudes solely through wordless means.
Worth your time for several reasons, but perhaps none so much as Harriet Sansom Harris’s incredible reaction to seeing the alien for the first time.
I loved this quirky, sweet movie. I liked even more the second time I watched it.
It’s a kind , delightful movie of 3 seniors feeling needed….