As a first outing for writer-director Derrick Borte, The Joneses is an admiral effort that floats on its premise but is ultimately sunk by the heavy weight of the rookie’s script.
David Duchovny (The X-Files: I Want to Believe) and Demi Moore (Mr. Brooks) play the two false parents of the Jones family. They and their two fake children move to a high-class suburban community under the commission of a marketing company. They insert themselves into the community, parading pricey consumer items as if they were their own. It’s called stealth marketing, and it is a great starting point for a movie.
Simply being shown what the hell stealth marketing is was enough to hold together the plot for the first half of the movie. Steve (Duchovny) drives the slickest cars and shows off the best golf clubs around while the kids, Jenn (Amber Heard, Pineapple Express) and Mick (Ben Hollingsworth, The Flesh Offering) infiltrate the schools with more age-appropriate products like makeup and video games.
A lot of laughs arise from the little inside jokes the marketers share with each other and the profound way of living the four family members get used to. They don’t mind having a little fun, with the exception of Kate, the high-strung leader of the group.
What comes after the fairly light-hearted introduction, though, is an uninspired look at the effects of such a lifestyle.
Jenn and Mick go through issues that have been so overdone in all forms of fiction that, without some insane twist or incredibly witty writing, is predictable down to the wire. Jenn finds out that her older lover is never going to leave his wife for her and Mick comes out of the closet — only after he gets beat up by a guy he tried to make out with, of course.
Another equally over-explored territory is Kate. Yes, she is the boss of a team of undercover marketers, but the stresses she struggles under are that of the ordinary female power-role. She prioritizes her job over her personal life and doesn’t know how to “let people in.”
What makes these already mundane storylines even more unbearable is the missed opportunity to explore those situations under the confines of such a unique job. There is virtually no connection between what these characters are going through and the commercialism undercurrent of the movie.
It’s as if the director sold this idea of stealth marketers to producers, then wrote the clichéd dysfunctional-family storyline that’s been done before to give the project a false feeling of sensitivity. Needless to say, it doesn’t really work out for either the director or viewer.
The exception to this is Steve, who seems to be the only person actually affected by the nature of his work. He’s a newcomer, after all. A golf teacher turned car salesman, he was recruited into the marketing company and taken on by Kate as her fake husband. He lacks the experience the others have and tries to drum up a real romance with Kate.
As the only dynamic character of the family — supported by Duchovny’s natural charm — Steve single-handedly makes The Joneses more watchable.
Gary Cole (Entourage), as reliable as ever, offers up another subtle, yet powerful performance. Cole’s character, Larry, suffers the most from the Joneses unrelenting business practices. His story doesn’t end well, but it leaves you with the most to think about.
Despite the aforementioned problems, this one is still worth a watch. Stealth marketing is an interesting enough topic to create a fact-for-fact documentary, but it does work in the realm of fiction as well.
Once that is out of the way, however, the writing starts to fall flat and the story drones on long enough to overstay its welcome.
diversions@umdbk.com
RATING: 2.5 stars out of 5
