Remember Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T.? The science fiction classic remains both delightfully funny and emotionally resonant in how it explores the connection a lonely young boy forms with a visiting alien who becomes stranded on our planet. Now what if there was a film that took a similar premise, made a few alterations, and then vaporized away any real cinematic vision? You'd probably have something that looks a lot like the toothless and tiresome Jules, a frustrating film about aging that makes it feel as though you've lost years watching it.
The lonesome widower Milton (played by a reserved Ben Kingsley) is trying to make the best of a bad situation when he discovers something that will upend his otherwise quiet life. No longer will he be able to spend his days merely watching television and futilely trying to convince the uncaring city council of his small Pennsylvania town to add another crosswalk so pedestrians like him can safely walk. When an alien crashes in his backyard, he suddenly has much bigger problems. Played by stunt performer Jade Quon, this being becomes known as Jules despite being silent and observing Milton with what seems to be detached curiosity. As the two form a bit of a bond, the man begins to reflect on his life as he faces the haunting prospect of his mind slipping away from him entirely.
The film builds around a premise that would work for a serviceable sketch, but instead stretches far beyond its breaking point into a feature. There is something rather bizarre about how Jules insists on repeating the same attempts at jokes over and over. One recurring bit involves straight-faced characters being informed of the alien that has crash landed in the small community and misunderstanding what's being communicated to them. When the first person says "Like an illegal alien?" before being corrected, it only elicits an eye roll at the utter lack of cleverness to the stiff writing and the painfully clunky manner in which the line is delivered. When you then hear it multiple more times, it encapsulates the film's fundamental lack of imagination and the almost complete absence of anything approaching incisive humor.
That Jules keeps hammering home the same jokes in both a micro and macro sense, each going further into distant galaxies light-years away from being remotely funny, makes this an experience that crashes harder than the central alien spaceship itself. The way it explores isolation and aging, while well-intentioned, is saccharine to the point of being suffocating. It attempts to coast off its premise, ensuring the few effective gags completely collapse under the weight the entire film places on them. Even scenes of Milton's doting daughter Denise (given something resembling heart by a wasted Zoe Winters of Succession) trying to be there for her father (while also often not knowing how to do that) are dragged down by how superficially her character is written. At one moment toward the end, the film itself seems to forget about her entirely before awkwardly acknowledging how she is indeed still around with little to actually do in the story.
Some of this is because the movie is really about how Milton connects with his neighbors, who provide the few standout moments — teetering ever so slightly on the edge of a darker humor. However, those instances are so few and far between that the actors are left to attempt to do a lot with very little.
The more Jules desperately pulls on the heartstrings, the more it feels cloying and contrived. For all the more serious reflections about aging it merely gestures at, it is a deeply unserious work. Everything feels like a series of strained gimmicks that come apart under the slightest scrutiny. As it shifts to being about Jules understandably wanting to repair the crashed spaceship and depart, it is only compelling in the abstract as it allows you to imagine that we too could blast off with the alien visitor into a better film as far away from this one as possible. ♦
JULES
