Booboboo Review of The Joneses

The Joneses (2009)

Critic of consumer society turns into shallow mass

[2/10 · 5 August 2010]

A sleek, well-made but disappointing movie. It starts as a critic of consumer society and corporations with loads of potential. After a while all the potential is burned and it turns into what it should be a caricature of: A lame, long advertisement. Sex and love between "mom" and "dad" becomes the main issue, and with this focus on micro level issues it is typically American. Had this movie been European the main actors would have made love, too, but this would not have become the whole point of the movie. Even the common denominator of the "father" and "son", doubting their fake life, is not used for anything - potential burned, again. When what could have been a powerful message about society became washed away by an improbable escape into private life, I was left sad.