‘Jules’ Review: Ben Kingsley, as a Befuddled Small-Town Codger Who Befriends an Extraterrestrial, Can’t Save This Sweet but Wan Fairy Tale
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Ben Kingsley, who likes to go to extremes, has played his share of frowningly overcivilized repressed geeks and also his share of seething walking-id maniacs.
But for all of Kingsley’s dexterous light-and-dark range, it’s still rare to see him take on a character as painfully mild as Milton, the small-town codger he plays in “Jules.” Milton, who is 78, lives by himself in a handsome dark-shingled house in Boonton, Penn.
In the opening scene, he takes one of his long slow walks through town, then stands up at the open-mic forum in front of the Boonton city council, where he suggests changing the town motto from “A great place to call home” to “A great place to refer to as home.” He’s that kind of harmless eccentric fuddy-duddy with maybe a screw or two coming loose.
The following week, he attends another city council meeting, where he stands up and says the exact same thing. Milton, in his disheveled gray hair and plastic aviator frames, his ancient plaid shirts and open sweaters, with a stare of befuddled blankness (he looks like he hasn’t smiled in 40 years), might be losing his faculties, or maybe he was always on some sort of spectrum.
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