After premiering at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2009, Derrick Borte's social satire The Joneses was treated to a considerable delay in general release; but sadly, with the continuing state of the global economy it has lost little of its timely relevance.
Ambitious in concept, the film centers on your picture-perfect nuclear family headed by Steve and Kate Jones (David Duchovny and a blank Demi Moore) who move into a wealthy American suburb.
David Duchovny, Gary Cole & director Derrick Borte
We soon learn that beneath their affluent and polished exterior, this family is the construction of a marketing company's strategy to sell high-end aspirational lifestyles.
Well cast for the purpose, the family includes children Mick and Jenn (Ben Hollingsworth and Amber Heard), who's casual amorality and apathy towards any consequences makes a nice point about the contemporary branding of youth culture.
In contrast, protagonist and relative "newcomer" to the marketing game, Steve Jones constantly struggles with reconciling the calculated company ethos with his romanticised notion of family life.
This cynical viewer felt cheated when the sharp black comedy promised in the first half of the story predictably descended into tiresome pious moralising.
Despite the films anti-consumerist sentiment, some of the most enjoyable aspects of the film centre around watching the continuous infomercial of luxury goods as the Joneses parade their fantasy lifestyle on screen. This great-looking family move through the bright and colourful sequences to a punchy soundtrack- ironically as if on display.
More interestingly is Borte's perspective on personal accountability amongst the film's purported victims, especially those in the supporting cast. Gary Cole and Glenne Headly are husband and wife Larry and Summer Symonds, whose stalled marriage gets a jump start as they are swept up in the purchasing frenzy that the Jones' family "self-marketing" scheme promotes.
Reflecting nicely the trend to abnegate financial responsibility when the realities of credit card bills catch up with them, the film also prefers to lay blame with larger social conspiracy.
It's a shame that the film finally opts for melodrama over a more pointed -and subtle- critique of the way in which excessive consumption is implicitly encouraged, as this otherwise mildly entertaining film could have been more than just that. - by Amanda and Nadia Baird