The Joneses

Directed by Derrick Borte. Starring David Duchovny, Demi Moore, Amber Heard, Ben Hollingsworth, Gary Cole 15A cert, gen release, 96 min

WHAT WE have here is a decent idea in search of a movie. David Duchovny and Demi Moore play the parents of a perfect family that is not quite what it seems. After moving into a middle-class neighbourhood, the Joneses – do, ahem, keep up – begin spreading rampaging avarice across the picket fences and about the perfectly manicured lawns.

Mr Jones buys the latest Audi and, seeing how much he enjoys it, the locals all find themselves craving the same vehicle. Mrs Jones sports new earrings, and they become the only thing the neighbours want upon their lobes.

Then the truth is revealed. The Joneses, who are not related, have been hired by an agency to flog their clients' many expensive products. It's the ultimate selling device: somebody you know personally with an apparently sincere enthusiasm for the relevant goods.

Unfortunately, when the inevitable moral crisis arrives, it feels hopelessly contrived. Mr Jones begins falling for his fake wife and starts to wonder if what they are doing can really be justified. These reversals only happen because this is a movie and that’s the sort of thing that needs to happen in movies. Surely anybody who took up this line of work would be incapable of such sentimentality.

All those problems noted, The Jonesesdoes just about get by on the cleverness of its premise and the canniness of its casting. Were Duchovny and Moore in on the act? It seems unlikely that the studio explained that no actors are better suited to play a laminated, wipe-clean, tediously ideal couple.

There is also something interesting going on with the product placement in the film. As each new (real) piece of merchandise is unveiled, The Jonesesappears to be sending up its own shamelessness. Either that or I'm as much of a sap as the "family's" neighbours.