The Joneses

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Apr 262010
 

The Joneses is a story about a fake family that is put together as a unit to live in an upscale neighborhood and promote products to the community. They are salespeople who live the most beautiful life they can so that other rich people will want what they have and go out and buy it. Kate Jones (Demi Moore) has been in the business for some years and has gone through 6 fake Mr. Joneses. She has had the same fake children throughout and you get the idea that the daughter’s trampy behavior got them into trouble on their last gig thus propelling Kate to try to do better this time. Kate looks for a new recruit to play hubby and lands Steve aka Mulder(David Duchovney) to play the part. They move into their new neighborhood that has an average income of $100,000 and start selling as soon as they get out of their Audi A3 (ooh, maybe I should get one of those). The Joneses is a good story wrapped in beautiful actors who deliver really good performances. It’s also a pretty funny satire written and directed by Derrick Borte.

NPR did a story about these kinds of new sales tactics recently because of the movies’ release. It was interesting to learn that no, this kind of technique does not  exist in reality but there are a couple of comparisons out there. One is that you, the consumer, can sign up with certain companies that will give you free stuff to try out. You don’t get paid for it but you get to keep the items that you try. All the companies ask in return is for your absolute honesty in your reviews of their products. This is a pretty cool way to get people to try new products and perhaps tell their friends and neighbors about it to get the word out but it’s not in the least sneaky. The other tactic, and I’m sure you’ve heard of this one, is that people are told to go to certain places of business and are paid to order things or talk up certain products in stores to get other consumers attentions. For example, the hot girl or guy at the bar that loudly orders a particular brand of vodka or something. Yeah, sounds like a cool job.

The Joneses story starts out simply enough but tumbles through the hardships of what is, I guess, normal for extremely attractive rich people. You see Mulder an ex-car salesman (I know! When did he have time for that?) and a rookie so he’s not quite on the ball with his sales. The daughter of the family, Jenn (Amber Heard) puts the moves on all the older men in the ‘hood and gets into all sorts of trouble. The son, Mick (Ben Hollingsworth) seems like an all around good egg until you learn something interesting about him. Yeah, no spoilers here.  Kate’s goal is to get to the top of the corporate ladder and has no interest in actually having a family or finding love. Or does she?  The center of the story revolves around Mulder and the fact that he’s actually a good, decent guy and makes real relationships with people in the ‘hood. One of those friendships is with none other than mister TPS report himself Lumberg, known in this move as Larry (Gary Cole). The way Mulder establishes that friendship, building Larry’s self esteem, fixing his relationship with his wife and then the ultimate backlash that, let’s all face it, we knew was coming, well it’s a really good story line and proves that there’s more to this movie than just making fun of our unhealthy relationship with overconsumption and consumerism.

The Joneses is playing in art houses. It didn‚Äôt get a big release, well, because it‚Äôs not a big release kind of movie. It‚Äôs basically a small movie and it‚Äôs really good. This movie deserves more of your attention than recent large box office smashes like Repo Men or Clash of the Titans. Even though Borte hasn‚Äôt done a string of movies in the past, this directorial debut should put him on the map for future works.¬† Demi Moore proves that she can handle larger roles and frankly should be cast more often. She‚Äôs actually good in this. I mean, what should I have been expecting since her last major, well publicized role was in Charlie‚Äôs Angels: Full Throttle? And well, Mulder should be in more movies in general. He’s got a subtlety to his acting that I used to think was just bad acting but now realize that the guy is just not an overactor; it‚Äôs his style. See House of D for further reference. ¬†I genuinely think this is a good satire/dramedy that should earn yet more of your hard earned cash at the box office, though I won‚Äôt blame you if you don‚Äôt make time for it considering the big movies coming out in the next couple of weeks.

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  • Zack_S

    good flick – goes past the simple satire of movies like THANK YOU FOR SMOKING.
    and i swear to god, i totally want a riding lawnmower with an in-dash lcd tv. AWEsome

  • Alex

    Hearing about Mulder helping Lumberg with his marriage and establishing a friendship with him makes me want to see this; sounds like a good (kind of) fish-out-of-water story, and the impending 'backlash' is always good to see happen, then resolve itself (one way or another). Thanks for the good rec.!

   
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