Dallas Film Now.

Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Jane Curtain star in a gentle, witty movie, directed by Marc Turtletaub. 

Now in his late 70s, Milton (Ben Kingsley) has relaxed into his retirement in a pleasant,  small town in western Pennsylvania, US. 

He lives alone in a spacious house, tends to his garden, shops for groceries, walks everywhere, and makes a weekly trek to the local community board to complain about the same things, week and after. His daughter, Denise (Zoe Winters), worries about him; she has noticed that he is beginning to forget things. 

One night, a spaceship from outer space crash lands in his backyard. He reports it to 911 and leaves a message for his daughter, but, really, he is more concerned about the azaleas that have been crushed. Everyone else, including his contemporaries Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtain), thinks he is imagining things. 

Life goes on. Then an alien emerges from the spaceship. 

Milton befriends the creature, human in appearance, clad in a unisex grey outfit, and entirely silent. The creature’s eyes are big and kind; he appears grateful for Milton’s hospitality, as the older gentleman, taciturn himself, invites the nameless creature into his home. 

Written by Gavin Steckler, perhaps best known for his writing on the spoof series Review, which I haven’t seen before, and directed by Marc Turtletaub (Puzzle, 2018), again a talent whose work I haven’t seen before, Jules may be a slight piece of whimsy, but running 90 minutes, it never wears out its welcome. 

Much of that can be attributed to Steckler’s script and Turteltaub’s direction, but it would hardly be the same without Ben Kingsley as the centerpiece. Milton has led a quiet life, an independent life, and wants to keep his indepence. 

He knows he has made mistakes in the past, which have led to estrangement from his son, who lives far away. He has only a somewhat-strained relationship with Denise; he recognizes that she only visits him out of a sense of duty. They are not unkind to one another, but neither are they close. 

The quiet alien appears out of the blue and gives Milton an opportunity to treat someone as he wishes he had treated his children while they were growing up. (It helps that the alien, portrayed by Jade Quon, a stunt performer and actress, is shorter than him, and is able to suggest emotions and thoughts through body language, a supremely neat trick on the part of the intelligent script and graceful performer.) 

To stretch out his opportunity a bit further, the film employs Sandy and Grace, supporting players who do what no supporting player ever does in an alien-encounter movie: they keep a secret. There’s no need to keep quiet about Jules, though; it’s a sweet morsel of a movie, a bite of tasty delight that’s emotionally satisfying. 

The film opens nationwide, Friday, August 11, 2023, only in movie theaters, via Bleecker Street, including the following locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area: Hometown Cinemas – Gun Barrel City, North East Mall 18, Ridgmar 13, Cinemark 12, Cinemark Tinseltown Grapevine and XD 17, Legacy 24, AMC Parks @ Arlington 18, Grapevine Mills 30 Theatres, Stonebriar 24, Mesquite 30 Theatres.