Who doesn’t like a good film about aliens arriving on earth and interacting with humans? “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”? “ET”? or Donald Trump running for President?
We have a great one here with seniors in the lead roles and with ageism in our society what I think just might be the movie of the summer perhaps will quickly fade off the big screen and into VOD land. Shame if that happens!
Milton (Ben Kingsley) lives in a small Western rural Pennsylvanian town and he is gradually showing some early signs of serious mental decline putting cans of food in the medicine cabinet instead of the kitchen cupboard and the like. He shows up at town hall meetings time and time again saying his piece but it is always the same. Groundhog Day dementia? His daughter insists on some neurological testing with a recommendation being made after the test he should consider assisted living.
One night an alien craft crashes into his garden destroying his bird bath and prized azaleas. A banged-up alien emerges and Milton welcomes him into his house. The alien, a non speaker, loves apples and enjoys human companionship. Milton tells a few locals about the alien but as he is an old man with a weakening mind not much attention is paid to him. A couple of his friends of equal age Sandy (Harriet Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtin) are let in on the secret and all three realize the existence of the alien must be a secret or the U.S. government will have Jules, as they name him, on the table for scientific dissection. The National Security Agency is a serious threat to aliens and to civil liberties of humans and aliens alike.
All the three humans are lonely due to family rifts and facts of life. Jules hears their sad stories which I suppose are more understandable to the viewer than to Jules.
Jules is peaceful but has certain powers that protect his three friends as you’ll see with the exploding head of a very bad thief! Jules repairs his spacecraft with very odd if not catty supplies and takes off with the three seniors just as the National Security Agency agents move in. Milton is given the choice to fly home to Jules’ planet and as he can’t bear the thought of his daughter Denise watching his mental decline will he accept the offer from Jules making a sequel a la Billy Pilgrim of “Slaughterhouse 5” fame?
Entertaining, didactic in a gentle way and loads of fun. Will the moviegoers of this planet give these old geezers and an alien the pleasure in being in the movie of the summer?
The film is directed by Marc Turtletaub and has a theatrical release in Canada on August 18th.
You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nrYm9Shbcs
RKS 2023 Film Rating 93/100.
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