The Joneses apparently have it all. Husband Steve (David Duchovny), wife Kate (Demi Moore) and teenage kids Jenn (Amber Heard) and Mick (Ben Hollingsworth) have just moved into an affluent suburb and to all their neighbors and classmates they are clearly the ones with biggest and best toys. But the Joneses have a secret, the truth behind all their success a consumer nightmare just waiting to rear its ugly head.  

CRITIQUE

For a great deal of its running time I was quite taken with director and writer Derrick Borte’s The Joneses. For about the first two-thirds the movie has an almost Paddy Chayefsky-like wit to it, and much like Network or The Hospital its take-no-prisoners attitude and go-for-the-jugular style of comedy fits this at times uproarious satire of our consumerist culture almost perfectly.

Unfortunately at a certain point the central romantic entanglements at the center of the piece due end up having to come into play, and watching Steve and Kate realize their love lives are more important than duping rich suburbanites is sadly a wee bit boring. More than that, the film must also make its fake family pay a price for their lives, the moral awakening happening within at least one of their members never coming across as genuine (or even as necessary) as it really needed to for in order for it to work.

But up until that point this is a strong, acidly funny satire that works far more often than it doesn’t. Both Duchovny and Moore are perfectly cast, while Gary Cole lends strong support as a neighbor quick to become overly captivated by the spell the Joneses are casting. Hollingsworth also has a couple of very strong moments, and while I didn’t completely buy his ultimate transformation the scene where he comes to grips with who he really is and announces it to his fake family is admittedly strong.

Relative newcomer Borte (working from an original story idea by Randy T. Dinzler) does a great job setting up his consumerist world and then an even more delightful one moving his actors within it. There are moments during the first half that, even though I was sitting in my living room watching the film all alone, I laughed out loud so hard I almost started choking, the timely nature of the central conceits mixing beautifully with the biting humor all of it coming together to bake a most delicious cake.

If only The Joneses hadn’t lost its nerve during the climax. During the final 20 minutes the whole thing becomes cliché and obvious, everything leading up to a relatively tired coda that almost can’t help but feel disappointing. Borte doesn’t take things all the way, and while there is a welcome morbidity to some of the final scenes the end product plays it far too safe for my liking. Still, overall I was quite taken with this movie, and while it did give me less than the more I was hoping for I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to enjoying myself immensely the majority of the way through.

THE VIDEO

The Joneses is presented in a 25GB single-layered 1080p/AVC-encoded 2.40:1 widescreen transfer. Solid transfer, nothing more.

THE AUDIO

Available audio includes English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio with optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles. Again, much like the video transfer this is a serviceable audio track, nothing more.

THE EXTRAS

There are two Deleted Scenes, one of which is already in the film in a somewhat edited version. Neither is awesome, but the second is clearly the standout if only because it’s almost an alternate ending that actually fits the acerbic tone and subject matter of the majority of the feature a tiny bit better.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Joneses is a solid effort that works best during its delightful first two thirds. While I wished the filmmakers would have come up with a more satisfactory conclusion, the film itself is still very easy to enjoy and should make for a solid bit of evening entertainment.