Keeping Up with the Joneses

I want to write about a very powerful movie I viewed this
weekend. It came out last year but I barely got the

opportunity to see it over the weekend. The movie is

titled "The Joneses." Here's the trailer:

Don't let the trailer fool you. It's not a light, campy movie about

a fake family. In fact, I think has a powerful critic on American

consumerism. And with the economy in shambles I believe it

is a message that needs to be told.

I will give you a quick synopsis. (Warning: Plot spoilers.) The

Joneses are undercover marketers pretending to be a family

so they can sell products to a rich, suburban neighborhood.

And they become quite successful in their marketing. Soon

their neighbors and local businesses are buying what they got.

Each character is hiding something behind the facade of

being the perfect well-to-do family. Kate (the mother, played

by Demi Moore) is an ambitious businesswoman but has

trouble maintaining a serious relationship. Steve (the father,

played by David Duchovny) is a lonely middle-aged man
who wants to marry and have a REAL family. Jenn (the

daughter, played by Amber Heard) is a nymphomaniac.

Mick (the son, played by Ben Hollingsworth) is hiding that

he's homosexual.

Their lies and and hyper-consumerism finally rears its'

ugly head. One of Mick's friend's gets into a car accident

after drinking wine coolers that the Joneses were marketing

to teens. But the ugliest part was when Steve finds his

neighbor and close friend, Larry, dead after committing
suicide. The reason why he committed suicide? He was
about to lose his house because he over-extended his credit.
All Larry's wife cared about was having nice things. The

pressure of keeping up with the Joneses was too much

for him and he killed himself.

The movie is a powerful social critic. While everyone is

discussing the causes of this disastrous economy, I rarely

hear hyper-consumerism enter the discussion. The

recession began with the housing bubble bursting. People

were basically buying homes they couldn't afford.

As a Christian, I simply call this greed. I would like to

hear the American Church to speak more about the

immorality of hyper-consumerism, which is just

greed by another name. It is soul-crushing.

Materialism is rampant in our society and the Church

must be in the forefront in confronting it. Materialism

reduces people to just what they acquire and not

who they are as human beings. God sees our heart

and soul, not our things. You can't take your things

with you once you pass away.