Jules

Jane Curtin, Harriett Samsom Harris and Ben Kingsley meet Jules. Photo via IMDB.

Milton Robinson is a creature of habit, He's as eccentric and quaint as the hamlet of Boonton, Pennsylvania, where he lives. His life mostly consists of watching TV and making weekly appearances before the town council during its public comments period. He always addresses the same two topics.

He thinks Boonton should change its slogan. “A great place to call home” is too confusing, he says. And they need to put a crosswalk on Trent Avenue. It's dangerous for pedestrians, he claims, although in the opening scene of the whimsical new comedy “Jules,” we see Milton walking down the middle of the street with not a danger in sight.

Other regulars at the public comments are a pair of graying busybodies doing the AARP rendition of “Stayin' Alive.” There's post-sexy Joyce (Jane Curtin), speaking on behalf of pickleball. And Sandy (Harriett Sansom Harris), with plans for a senior-youth tutoring program.

Under a shock of gray hair, Sir Ben Kingsley is almost unrecognizable as Milton. An ever-present pair of glasses produce an uncanny resemblance to Woody Allen, although Milton's demeanor is more reminiscent of Peter Sellers' iconic Chancy Gardner in “Being There.” Despite that title, Milton like Chancy is never really all there, The performance is a masterpiece of understatement.

Milton's veterinarian daughter Denise (Zoe Winters) worries after her dad starts misplacing cans of vegetables in the bathroom cabinet. But – true to the unwritten code of aging widowed fathers everywhere – he's stubbornly attached to the enveloping haze filling his rambling empty house. 

So no one on the town council is particularly alarmed when Milton amends his comments one week to complain about the alien spaceship that crashed in his garden, taking out his azaleas and his birdbath.

(Spoiler alert: Milton almost always tells the truth … as best he can. Read no further if you don't want to ruin the surprises.)

Sometime after the ship's arrival, Milton returns home one day to find a being lying in his yard, as frail as a bird fallen from a nest. The being is gray, like a plaster garden statue. Its face is expressionless other than the eyes, which take in everything and are as wise as eternity.

Once he begins caring for the visitor, Milton discovers it loves apples. Like the members of the town council, the supermarket checker doesn't bat an eye when the old man matter-of-factly explains that he has loaded his cart with Honeycrisps to feed the alien.

The fact that no one believes Milton or takes him seriously helps screenwriter Gavin Steckler gleefully skip beyond limits of disbelief in his wry, heart-tugging script. No one in town bothers checking out Milton's story about the UFO in the garden, or the little gray guy who by now is sitting on the couch next to him watching TV.

Close encounters with anyone else never quite happen … until Sandy, one of the biddies from the council meeting, shows up at his door. After nearly having a heart attack at first sight of the visitor, it's not long before she's in maternal mode. She provides a T-shirt, and bestows the name Jules. She also advises Milton to stop blabbing. She's seen movies. Everyone knows what happens to creatures like Jules.

(A running joke through the script is the double meaning of “alien.” There's the kind like Jules. And the other, illegal kind. In today's America, neither are welcome.)

It's not long before Joyce, the other council meeting lady, comes snooping around. Once she meets the new guy, she thinks he looks more like a Gary.

Jade Quon plays Jules, using those eyes in place of dialogue to convey worlds of curiosity and wonder across its unchanging facial features. 

When “E.T.” landed in a California suburb more than a half-century ago, the kids in the neighborhood were the only ones who could see him. This time the only beholders of the stranded alien are a ragtag posse well into their seventies.

Talk about poetic justice. Or maybe just the sad certainty of aging.

Director Marc Turtletaub who has had a home on Maui for decades, named his production company Big Beach. ”Jules” premiered a few weeks ago at the Maui Film Festival, where it hit the bull's-eye of the festival's enduring commitment to “life-affirming storytelling.” 

As a producer Turtletaub's many credits include “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Loving,” “The Farewell” and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” Segueing into the director's chair, his touch is light, letting the script's gentle one-liners blossom like flowers in a garden. The effects achieve results that are poignant, wise and often laugh-out-loud hilarious.

There's a subplot of sorts about government agents trying to find Jules on their radar. While Jules' powers will eventually reveal themselves, he is hardly an action figure. His effect is more subtle. He doesn't change or transform his unlikely trio of protectors so much as he changes our perception of them. While Milton, Sandy and Joyce may have aged out of the demographics ruling American consumer culture, “Jules” illuminates the youthful spirits still intact under the sagging bodies and wandering minds.

Comparisons to “E.T.” are inevitable. The town's slogan slyly echoes the most famous line from Spielberg's early masterpiece. “Jules'” low-budget indie credentials are light years from Spielberg's state-of-the-art CG universe. But the new film's modest aspirations add a certain charm, if not polish, to its emotional impact. It's a natural gem for streaming that now fills a lot of the space once occupied by art-house cinema.

Calling “Jules” an E.T. for grownups sells it short. Spielberg's early films were built on the premise that kids knew stuff that their parents didn't. So much for older and wiser. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, a half-century later, not so much.

“Jules” celebrates life at the other end of the continuum. It's not so much about restoring dignity to a group who would be called “elders” in so-called primitive societies. Instead it's about appreciating them for who they are. Ironically, “Jules'” guardians are as innocent as “E.T.'s” kids were, even as they delightfully show you're never too old to be a character in a movie.

A series of fades to black in the final scenes suggests that the filmmakers weren't quite sure how to finish their work. Or maybe the decision was like life itself, which, no matter how awkward and humbling it may ultimately become, is something none of us want to see end.