At first glance, “Jules” seems like another sweet-natured story geared towards senior citizens, but director Marc Turtletaub‘s dramedy deals with some serious societal issues like isolation and loneliness, especially when it comes to how gray-haired people are treated by the rest of the world. It’s a message that’s no doubt delivered with the best of intentions, but this movie is bland, predictable, and lacks that special something that could’ve made it more at least a bit more palatable.
Life is extraordinarily ordinary for 78 year old Milton (Ben Kingsley), a widower who lives in a small town in Pennsylvania, until the night a spaceship crashes in his backyard. He’s curious about the extraterrestrial visitor he calls Jules (Jade Quon), and starts to enjoy having someone to talk to (even if his new alien friend can’t understand a word). Milton is completely honest with everyone in town about the strange being in his home, but nobody seems to believe him. It’s only when his two nosy neighbors Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtin) discover Jules and the government begins to close in that things become complicated.
There is nothing creative about the story, which hits all the calculable clichés one would expect from a lightweight film geared towards retirees. There are innocuous jokes that’ll have grandma and grandpa slapping their knees, and there’s a nice message about it never being too late to find a connection with people (or aliens). But then there’s a side plot about dementia that’s been done dozens of times before in films like this, where Milton’s adult daughter Denise (Zoë Winters) wants to stick him in an assisted living facility when he begins showing problems with his memory. Even worse, the trio eventually helps their alien friend gather fuel for his spaceship, which runs on dead cats.
That’s where the film took the turn of no return for me, and I was completely turned off from the story and began to hate the characters. There’s nothing funny about dead felines, and it’s played for laughs which is really appalling. There is absolutely nothing “delightful” nor “charming” nor “sweet” about a movie that features a scene of an alien euthanizing an elderly pet using telekinesis. It’s tasteless, upsetting and does not belong in a story that claims to be about empathy. I guess everyone deserves a dose of grace and kindness in this world, unless you’re a cat. What terrible messaging.
The production values are second-rate too, especially the makeup for Jules. Yes, the creature looks like a classic alien, but in many scenes you can actually see the gap on the back of the actor’s face mask. The performances are fine, but there movie features plenty of head-scratching moments. Among the most bizarre is when Joyce begins singing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” out of the blue, or when Sandy is violently attacked by a would-be jewelry thief.
Even if not for the tasteless gag about using dead cats for UFO fuel, I can’t think of any good reason to recommend “Jules.” This one is an all-around dud.
