The Joneses

Summary: The Joneses is about a family that is perfect and how their move to an upper scale neighborhood forces all the other members of the community to keep up with the Joneses. The Joneses isn't a real family as they're perfect, but a "cell" that's designed to help its advertisers sell more, more and more.

Review: I'm starting to think that actors who play a certain role on screen don't necessarily "act," but find a part of themselves to draw upon. I had a science teacher who once met David Duchovny said his humor was really dry. I think he has been the same character in all his works if that real life encounter held true. Hank in Californication, Mulder from X-Files and Steve Jones all have the same persona. Demi Moore did give a decent performance in this movie, but the acting wasn't as strong from the two kids: Amber Heard and Ben Hollingsworth although their roles were minimized. The plot was strong, but it tried to do too much with all its different subplots. It could have dwelved deeper into several storylines instead of trying to have a bunch of subplots that weren't explored more deeply. Maybe the subplots were just there to prove that the family wasn't perfect, but they felt very rushed and didn't connect to the central message of the human nature to better those around them. Maybe I'm asking too much as the subplots could only be deepened with a tv series that extends beyond screen time.

Further Question/Philosophy/Theme: The movie poses many interesting points with consumerism and how it is destroying America. Whether or not it was intentional, it brought up many problems in American society with the consumer being told to buy what they can't afford and drowning in debt from their choices. It asks what's really important in life and the consequences of losing sight of that with attempts to please other people.

Power Rating (Out of 5) and Comments: 3 I think this movie was a fun watch and it tried to lighten the mood despite the dark plot. The sinister companies behind this are trivialized and made to seem to be too evil rather than it is what it is. The human elements in the movie were lacking a bit despite the great setups of the plot to make this a more dramatic movie. This movie could have been made into a great drama, but I guess with Duchovny at the helm, an attempt to turn it into something lighter was sucessful, but it could have been a drama with many funny moments.