Friday, April 16, 2010
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Friday, April 16, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
The Joneses
These Joneses Have A Jones
For Selling
Ben Hollingsworth, Amber Heard, Demi Moore and David Duchovny in Derrick Borte's
"The Joneses", which opened today across the U.S. and Canada.
Roadside Attractions
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday, April 16, 2010
In sunny Los Angeles, a family is what it literally wears in the case of "The
Joneses", directed by Derrick Borte. This satire on upward mobility and
prosperity opened today across the U.S. and Canada.
Demi Moore is Kate, who recruits her perfect family to sell products for a
lifestyles company. Three members are set for success: Steve (David
Duchovny), Jenn (Amber Heard) and Mick (Ben Hollingsworth). Before you can
say "start your engines", this quirky quartet sells their assigned products to
the highest bidder, setting the trends and styles by wearing them.
Meanwhile, neighbors Summer (Glenne Headly) and Larry (Gary Cole) have all they
want, it seems, but they'd like a little more. And in America, there's
nothing wrong with that, right, so why not? There's playful competition
between Larry and Steve, who spend more than a few rounds on the golf course.
An uncanny line is uttered by Mr. Duchovny's Steve, referring to a certain
pro-golfer. The line has an ironic meaning, and will produce laughs of
discomfort, especially since "The Joneses" was filmed sometime before last
year's revelations came to light, and particularly when Mr. Duchovny's own
private struggles have been the stuff of tabloid headlines in the past.
"The Joneses" starts well, with thought-provoking bravado and sly, comic energy,
and then becomes a murky, grim drama that tries hard to sell the resolution of
its story, yet extends it solely to make a neat and tidy ribbon and bow. A
lot of Mr. Borte's screenplay is perky and prescient, particularly in this era
of millisecond marketing and supersaturated sloganeering. There are
undercurrents of raw truth in advertising too, and while Ms. Moore and Mr.
Duchovny do decently here, it is Mr. Cole and Ms. Headly who do better.
The film's interpretations of one's self-worth and identity as seen through
materialism lie at its heart, and "The Joneses" scores a lot of points when it
tangles and intertwines these variables as a moral heartbeat pulsing through the
story.
Mr. Borte's film errs however, when it sets up this new family and bedraggles it
with melodramatic tics in the third act. We learn more about one of the
characters, and the revelation feels false, or at least for the sake of the
story, hollow. To the extent that identity or its facade is a part of "The
Joneses", the revelation is neither new nor completely unexpected. It's a
throwaway that is wholly irrelevant, but most of all the film, which had been
quite good up to this point, fizzles more than it sparks.
With: Lauren Hutton.
"The Joneses" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for
language, some sexual content, teen drinking and drug use. The film's running time is one hour and
33 minutes.
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Read more movie reviews and stories from Omar
here.
Read Omar's "Far-Flung Correspondent" reports for America's pre-eminent Film
Critic Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times -
here
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