The Joneses (2010)

A film titled The Joneses obviously relies on the audience to mentally place the words “keeping up with” in front of it. Just as obvious: Keeping up with the Joneses is exactly what this weak-premised, muddled mess of a movie is about. The title is about as clever as this thing gets.

The Jones family moves into an anonymous, upwardly mobile community–“average household income over $100,000,” notes the mother, stylish Kate Jones (Demi Moore). Her husband, Steve (David Duchovny), is an amiable golf enthusiast. Their teenage son, Mick (Ben Hollingsworth), and daughter, Jenn (Amber Heard), make friends with little effort and become instantly popular at their new school. Kate spends her days wowing her neighbors and gay black hairdresser with her trendy clothes and high-tech gadgets. Meanwhile, Steve passes much of his time playing golf and impressing next-door neighbor Larry (Gary Cole). Don’t these people have jobs? How can they afford all this fancy stuff? And why do the parents in this apparently perfect household sleep in separate bedrooms?

Actually, all four Joneses have jobs–they’re not a real family at all, but a “cell” of employees from a marketing firm. They’ve been cast in these familial roles, and their purpose is to be trendsetters, infiltrating their community and generating indirect sales of the products they’re seen using, all supplied to them by the company. Cosmetics, golf clubs, video games, beverages, appliances, frozen appetizers–the more buzz, ripple effect and sales each employee generates, the higher their individual numbers go. And mother Kate checks those numbers regularly, because she’s the real boss of their cell (or “unit” as she calls it), and she has to report to the boss over them all, KC (Lauren Hutton). So daddy Steve sleeps in a separate bedroom because he’s not a real husband or father at all, but a rookie employee pretending to be married to his own boss.

Writer-director Derrick Borte may have intended for this film to be a satirical commentary on the supposed evils of capitalism and our society’s incessant desire for material possessions–a sort of modern-day parable illustrating the Biblical precept of the unprofitability in gaining the world but losing one’s soul. However, The Joneses fails as a cautionary tale, due in large part to its release during a severe recession. People are keenly aware of the hazards of conspicuous consumption these days–a glance at the daily news or our wallets confirms that. This movie isn’t illuminating anything we don’t already know.

The concept of “stealth marketing” (as KC terms it) is not as shocking or unusual as this movie would like us to believe. The luxury brands name-dropped throughout all have marketing departments, and they know the value in increasing their number of impressions, widening their cultural awareness, and generating buzz (even by inclusion in this film). Companies have cozied up to celebrities and VIPs for years, for example, with expensive “goodie bags” distributed backstage at award ceremonies, fashion shows, and special events. They understand the surge in consumer interest that accompanies a famous actor or rock star visiting their resort or wearing their clothing line. And with nearly every available visible surface or public space increasingly covered by ads and branding, the concept presented in this movie is nothing new.

What is surprising is how unfunny and unengaging the movie is. A satire commonly uses humor to expose a darker truth; The Joneses has neither. Apart from an amusing moment when sex-crazed fake-daughter Jenn tries to bed her own fake-father–“Why not, if you’re not gonna do him?” she asks her fake-mom–this movie generates a few quiet chuckles at best. The darker turns taken by the plot in its later stages are clichéd and poorly resolved, if at all, and increase the film’s awkward, labored feeling. The leading characters have little or no chemistry, which may be an accurate reflection of them as unrelated employees posing as a family, but it’s not much fun to watch. Demi Moore again demonstrates her competent but uninspiring talent, and David Duchovny shows only two settings on his emotional range: smirking and nonsmirking (mostly the former).

As much as the filmmakers want us to empathize with Duchovny, who’s new to the company and not as career-driven as his faux-wife, the only sympathetic character is the neighbor’s wife, Summer (Glenne Headly). She works hard to be the best beauty products salesperson by repeating positive mantras, carefully planning her presentation, and agonizing over the slightest detail of her home-based sales parties. Her character is an object of derision in this script, small potatoes compared to the high-concept marketing going on right next door. It seems undeserving and irresponsible for the film to cast cynical aspersions on a budding small-business operator in this “too big to fail” economy. Ultimately, Summer is the only person in the movie worthy of our concern, thanks in large degree to Ms. Headly, a consistently fine actress.

In fact, rather than wasting two hours on this dull and simple-minded movie, watch Demi Moore and Glenne Headly together nearly 20 years ago in the superb thriller Mortal Thoughts. As for keeping up with The Joneses, that’s easier than you may think. Just subtract the well-known Hollywood actors and production design by two-time Oscar nominee Kristi Zea, print out some demographic pie charts for a script, and you too can make a movie this amateurish.

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