by Frank Calvillo
Keeping up with Joneses, the new comedy coming out this week, is as inconsequential as a film can get. Just how inconsequential of a film is it exactly? I wasn’t even aware that this film existed at all until I saw the invitation for the movie’s press screening! I’m sure that that same fact extends to much of the film’s target audience, who would surely make faces of confusion if someone were to mention the film’s title to them. But regardless of this, the film indeed does exist, and I, like the dutiful film critic that I am, must review this offensively bland and instantly forgettable unfunny piece of studio nothingness.
In Keeping up with the Joneses, HR employee Jeff (Zach Galifianakis) and interior designer Karen (Isla Fisher) have just said goodbye to their kids for the summer and are trying to find some excitement in their lives. Enter the Joneses, the new neighbors from across the street. Tim (Jon Hamm) and Natalie (Gal Gadot) are attractive, speak multiple languages, and are incredibly accomplished in every way possible. While Jeff instantly bonds with the couple, a suspicious Karen begins to assume that something is up with their new neighbors, who are actually involved in top secret espionage.
Keeping up with the Joneses makes the biggest offense any comedy can make by offering no credible laughs in its entire script. Literally every joke has been done before, and usually done better. In fact, the whole exercise feels like deja vu, calling to mind the likes of The Whole Nine Yards and We’re the Millers. What makes this even more of an egregious offense is that the film was directed by Greg Mottola, who up until now had proven himself to be a fresh voice in modern-day comedic filmmaking. From his breakout hit Superbad, to the poignant humor of Adventureland and the hilariously reference-filled Paul, Mottola’s handle of comedy has breathed fresh life into the genre and established him as one of the few filmmakers who deliver virtually any kind of laugh. It’s incredibly difficult to decipher what attracted the director to the project in the first place, but Keeping up with the Joneses is a definite blemish on an otherwise stunning resume.
Throughout the bulk of Keeping up with the Joneses I kept thinking about all the different actors who could have played the lead roles in past decades. Names such as Burt Reynolds, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis, Meg Ryan, Jim Carrey, Julia Roberts, Robin Williams, and Bette Midler all flowed through my mind for most of the film’s runtime. This is due to no reason other than the fact that every aspect of the film feels not just contrived, but also heavily dated. The film feels so dated, in fact, that no person could even call it a throwback and get away with it. There is absolutely nothing fresh nor inventive whatsoever to be had here in terms of the cardboard cutouts labeled characters or the shell of a plot with moves you can anticipate before the first act is over. This is a film which could have been made in any era, with most any name star who’s ever set foot into comedy terrain. In this day and age when moviegoers are as fussy as ever about what they will elect to go into a theater to see, this simply won’t do.
As expected, the cast falters thanks to a script which takes them nowhere. Hamm plays up the charming aspects of his character to the point where he’s got nothing else left, while Gadot doesn’t even register beyond being incredibly beautiful, and Fisher is flat out miscast, not to mention far too attractive to play a suburban mom in a rut. It was a nice change of pace to see Galifianakis in a role that doesn’t have him playing a weirdo. His Jeff is as normal and boring as they come. But any chance of the actor delivering a performance other than what he’s used to is squashed by a collection of one-liners which sound like they could have come from The Hangover series. Only Patton Oswalt in a supporting role manages to bring any kind of comedic color to the film, though his brief appearance comes far too late to do Keeping up with the Joneses any good.
If there were any form of justice in the movie world, Keeping up with the Joneses would have been released straight to DVD, or even been made for television. At best, the film reminds me of the kind of January/February filler fodder that studios usually churn out during what is widely considered to be the deadest of all the movie seasons. But someone with power and influence decided that the title had “fall movie” written all over it and was good enough to compete with the likes of Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, and Ben Affleck. There are so many other, better films to choose from, that the fact that they have to make room and share audiences with a film like Keeping up with the Joneses is a sad fact that leaves me a tiny bit bitter. However, like I first mentioned, those audiences probably won’t know its out anyway.
