Ben Kingsley befriends an alien in 'Jules,' an oddly stress-free, but mostly pleasant film

There is a genre of films in which familiar, aging actors play aging characters that may or may not be heightened versions of themselves — haha, isn’t it cute to see Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin chase after Tom Brady, or Morgan Freeman and Robert DeNiro hobble around Las Vegas for a bachelor party?

Not really, no.

But the appeal is obvious: Aging boomers like seeing the actors they grew up watching get old on-screen, even as the audience gets older in real life.

“Jules” could fall into that category, with Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris and Jane Curtin dipping their toes into the doddering well. But it’s not just that — it’s also a movie about a visitor from out of space, whose appearance teaches us … you know, I’m not exactly sure.

But it makes the movie weird enough to rise above the usual fare of this ilk, if only slightly.

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What is 'Jules' about?

Kingsley plays Milton, who is 78 years old and lives in the small town of Boonton, in western Pennsylvania. He lives alone, after the death of his wife, watching TV. He is the sort of fellow who shows up at every city council meeting to suggest changing the town’s slogan or to request a crosswalk at a busy intersection.

His daughter Denise (Zoë Winters, who played Kerry in “Succession”) is worried about him. She finds a can of green beans in the bathroom cabinet. He spaces things. She thinks he should see a doctor, but Milton refuses.

Then one night a spaceship crashes in his backyard. He’s mostly concerned about the damage to his azaleas and his bird bath. But soon an alien creature, obviously injured, makes its way near his back door.

Milton undoubtedly appreciates the companionship, particularly since the alien doesn’t bug him about his memory. Or anything else; it doesn’t speak. (Jade Quon plays the alien; her movements are quite expressive.) Mostly it sits on the couch eating apples Milton provides and trying to repair the crashed spaceship.

Soon, however, Sandy (Harris), another regular at city council meetings, finds out about the alien. So does Joyce (Curtin), who is as grumpy as Sandy is bubbly. They decide the alien should have a name: Jules.

Denise steps up her concern about Milton’s ability to live by himself, especially when he tells the clerk at the grocery store he’s buying a bunch of apples to feed the alien who crash-landed in his backyard. And there are occasional — very occasional — glimpses of some kind of secret government agency searching for the spaceship. A couple of nearly anonymous agents make attempts at figuring out what’s going on, but their appearances are so fleeting they barely even register in terms of tension in the story.

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Director Marc Turtletaub goes out of his way to make “Jules” as tension-free as possible, which can be odd at times. For instance, Jules has some rather dangerous, even deadly powers, but they’re played mostly for laughs. Although the spaceship using dead cats for fuel is a nice touch.

“Pleasant” is probably the word best used to describe the whole film.

Mostly “Jules” is just an excuse to spend some time with Kingsley, Harris and Curtin doing things we don’t always see them do. Harris is probably best known as Frasier’s acerbic agent in “Frasier,” so it’s interesting to see her be so sweet here. Certainly, Curtin belting out “Free Bird” isn’t something we see often.

But we spend most of our time with Kingsley, who makes the audience care about Milton without pandering through emotional shortcuts. He manages to build a credible relationship between Milton and Jules. It’s nothing groundbreaking. Nothing about “Jules” is. But it is kind of nice.

'Jules' 3 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Marc Turtletaub.

Cast: Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, Jane Curtin.

Rating: PG-13 for strong language.

How to watch: In theaters Friday, July 11.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Jules' review: A sweet little alien film with almost no tension