Jules review – gentle alien comedy from Marc Turtletaub

Ben Kingsley is superb as a pensioner who finds a flying saucer in his garden in a comedy that doesn’t flinch from themes of ageing and loneliness

The uneventful life of pensioner Milton (Ben Kingsley) is disrupted when a flying saucer crashes into the backyard of his home in rural Pennsylvania, crushing his azaleas in the process. It’s the damage to the plants that bothers him most about the situation, as he tells bemused fellow townsfolk. But since Milton is showing the early stages of dementia, nobody takes him seriously. When a small, inscrutable alien lifeform crawls from the wreckage, Milton does the decent thing and provides the being with a blanket and a selection of snacks. The alien – nicknamed Jules – favours sliced apples. Two elderly neighbours, Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtin), learn of Milton’s house guest, and the old man finds the friendship and support that has long been missing from his life.

It’s a gently inoffensive little comedy from Marc Turtletaub (producer of Little Miss Sunshine and director of Puzzle), with an amiably jovial score. But the picture is elevated by its handling of melancholy themes of ageing and loneliness, and a superb gruff-yet-vulnerable performance from Kingsley.