Materialism showcased in ‘The Joneses’
The movie
”
The Joneses
”
was released in 2009, after the bottom had already fallen out of
the economy. In some ways writer/director Derrick Borte’s film,
based on a story by Randy T. Dinzler, would almost have been more
pertinent if it had come out a few years earlier before the bubble
had burst.
In the film, now on DVD, the Joneses appear to be the perfect
family when they move into a high-end suburban neighborhood. Steve
(David Duchovny) and Kate (Demi Moore) are a fashionable couple,
good-looking and quickly become the envy of their neighbors for
their passionate relationship as well as for their material
possessions. Kids Jenn (Amber Heard) and Mick (Ben Hollingsworth)
also quickly become part of the in crowd at the local high
school.
Materialism showcased in ‘The Joneses’
The movie “The Joneses” was released in 2009, after the bottom had already fallen out of the economy. In some ways writer/director Derrick Borte’s film, based on a story by Randy T. Dinzler, would almost have been more pertinent if it had come out a few years earlier before the bubble had burst.
In the film, now on DVD, the Joneses appear to be the perfect family when they move into a high-end suburban neighborhood. Steve (David Duchovny) and Kate (Demi Moore) are a fashionable couple, good-looking and quickly become the envy of their neighbors for their passionate relationship as well as for their material possessions. Kids Jenn (Amber Heard) and Mick (Ben Hollingsworth) also quickly become part of the in crowd at the local high school.
The Joneses are not who they seem to be, however, in Borte’s dark critique about conspicuous consumption. The family isn’t a family at all, but a group of employees who work for a marketing firm that plants faux relatives in the middle of the suburbs to stealthily sell products to their neighbors.
Each member of the family has a target audience and a set list of products to push. Dad Steve needs to move sports cars, golf clubs and ride-on lawn mowers. Kate’s forte is hair care products, cosmetics and high-end fashion designers. The kids push electronics, lip gloss and mp3 players.
Kate is the head of the unit, as she refers to her “family.” She has worked with Mick and Jenn before, but Steve is new to the mix. He’s a former car salesman and golf pro who seems a little unsure about how to handle his new job. He bonds with his neighbor Larry Symonds (Gary Cole), but doesn’t seem to make many connections beyond that.
At the one-month mark, KC (Lauren Hutton) visits the family with a progress report of how they have done with increasing sales for their clients. Steve has seen only a 3.5 percent increase, while the rest of the family is in double digits. KC is ready to drop Steve, but Kate asks for another chance to motivate him.
Kate has her eye on icon status, the elusive top tier of stealth salespeople. But in order to achieve it, she needs to get Steve’s numbers up. She talks to him about finding connectors – these are people in the community that others look to for the latest trends. The connector makes it possible to get the products out to a group without having to talk to each person individually. Her connector is a hair dresser who has contact with many rich women through his beauty salon.
Steve finds his connector in a golf pro, who talks up golf clubs, clothing and other sports equipment. His numbers go up tenfold. But even then Steve still seems a bit unsure about his job. He tries to connect with his other family members on a real level by inviting his fake family to the movies, but none of them are interested in spending time together when they aren’t being paid for it. When Steve tries to bond with Kate, she reminds him that she is his boss and that they need to focus on their job.
The kids, too, have their own problems. It’s not clear how old they really are, but Jenn and Mick are definitely not the high school age they are pretending to be. Jenn tries to seduce Steve, and when her advances are rebuffed, she turns to another older married man. Mick starts dating a girl even though he seems to be ambivalent about her, and he seems uncomfortable with the phony relationship.
As Steve’s success increases, KC offers him a chance to leave behind his unit to work with another one where he could be even better. But Steve feels some sense of loyalty to Kate, Jenn and Mick, though it is unclear if the feeling is mutual.
The people who seem most affected by the Joneses presence are neighbors Larry and his wife Summer (Glenne Headly). Summer is a saleswoman herself, who tries to sell a line of beauty products to her neighbors, not very successfully. Larry falls for all of Steve’s expensive toys, from his sports car to his ride-on lawn mower. He even takes Steve’s advice and starts showering his wife with expensive gifts to keep her happy.
The Symondses look really happy on the surface, like the Joneses, but Larry is keeping a secret from his neighbors and wife as he tries to keep up with the Joneses. The climatic scene in the movie is a bit over the top as Larry’s debt drives him to extreme measures. The movie is anything but subtle, but it does offer a critique on greed, marketing and how the bubble got so big in the first place.
Melissa Flores can be reached at mf*****@pi**********.com. She writes a blog at http://melissa-movielines.blogspot.com about movies, TV, food and more.
