Keeping up with the Joneses can be bad for your health, especially if The Joneses are a picture-perfect family with very expensive tastes and the financial resources of a large corporation. Spoiler Alert: the gimmick, revealed in the first act of the movie, is that the titular family is in fact a collection of unrelated individuals employed by an anonymous conglomerate to increase sales of various high-end products (think sports cars, diamond rings, and expensive golf clubs). Their sales technique consists of being beautiful while wielding whatever item they are selling. Their friends and neighbors feel compelled to keep up with the Joneses and go buy that item.
The wisdom and efficiency of this sales tactic is beside the point; instead it is a vehicle to carry a vague message about the dangers of rampant consumerism. It is also a commentary on the American family unit. David Duchovny plays Steve Jones, the most recent hire by Jones matriarch Kate (Demi Moore). A former car salesman, Steve takes the Jones job as a trial run at having a real family. It’s his test drive of family life, and he discovers that he likes it. Kate could not care less, however: she is all about the bottom line. Their two (nominally) teenage children, meanwhile, have their own problems that are papered over for the sake of moving product.
Steve’s attraction to family life is understandable enough, especially given the limitless bank account that supplies them with top-of-the-line everything, a beautiful house, and generally not a care in the world. And Demi Moore is naturally attractive and masquerading as Steve’s wife, so a certain attraction there is also understandable. But her relentless pursuit of the next sales target is wearying. Or at least it should be to Steve. He is smitten, but the script by writer-director Derrick Borte never gives us a peek beneath her professional armor to glimpse just what it is he sees in her.