"They're not just living the American dream, they're selling it."
This is a movie that could have been so much more than it actually is. The Joneses (as in keeping up with …) was meant to be a biting satire, a socialist message about our culture of mass consumption but ultimately it ends up with nothing much to say at all. And it certainly had a lot going for it in terms of potential, not least being built upon an intriguing idea about a fake family set up as stealth marketing team in a wealthy McMansion-type neighbourhood. Their good looks and popularity were meant to kick-start new trends in products and clothing that would send their wealthy admirers scuttling to the nearest store in a desperate attempt to keep up. The Joneses also enjoyed the privilege of two strong lead actors in David Duchovny (Steve Jones) and Demi Moore (Kate Jones) who both have had intimate experience with the highs and lows of Hollywood and thus should have been able to lend this movie the extra satirical bite it needed to be effective. Furthermore, these two were well supported by their ‘perfect teenage children’ in the good-looking duo of Amber Heard playing Jenn and Ben Hollingsworth playing Mick.
So with all that in place this really could have been a great movie, with an edgy satirical message and a black humour undertone that you would laugh at but simultaneously feel challenged by in terms of your own vain weaknesses and tendencies towards needless mass consumption. Sadly, The Joneses ends up totally missing the mark in this respect. There are some incisive and funny moments but about mid-way through its cultural critique collapses as the Jones' 'family' endure episode after episode of psychodrama. It ends up becoming a rather weak and unoriginal moralistic tale, rather than the scathing satire it could have been, should have been. The film tries to be more than one thing and ends up as nothing really. If it had continued the satire, then the noose of the Joneses inauthentic lives would have gradually strangled the life out of them, and we would have been left a little shaken – as any good satire should leave us feeling.
Ultimately, this movie wimped out and it paid the price. A compelling premise was wretchedly executed as it backed away from the satire and moved into a wishy-washy moralistic tale. The result is a decidedly average movie. In fact, it is a decidedly ironic movie, because it ends up being nothing more than weak escapist fare; it doesn’t make you think or challenge you, but ends up massaging your mind while you pay good money to do nothing more than sit there and consume popcorn.
One and a half stars out of five for The Joneses. Be warned that there is moderate bad language and some semi-nudity.