Keeping Up With The Joneses is a film that may have slipped off your radar but is one that is worth the watch. An comedy-action film starring hilarious funny man, Zach Galifianakis, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm, and Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot.
The film follows the suburban couple, the Gaffneys (Galifianakis and Fisher), whose lives are interrupted by the arrival of their good looking, sophisticated and mysterious new neighbours, the Joneses (Hamm and Gadot). While Jeff Gaffney blindly trusts his new neighbours and sees Tim Jones as his new buddy, Karen Gaffney is highly suspicious and threatened by Natalie Jones, believing that there was more to the couple than meets the eye. This of course calls for ludicrous moments of hilarity not unusual for Galifianakis and Fisher, who thrive on this kind of comedy.
The story is slow to begin with as it introduces viewers to each character and their personalities. We are informed of the wondrous adventures the Joneses have been on and their wide array of talents from travel writing to working on a successful cooking blog. The Joneses appeared to be a couple that’s far too good to be true. The Gaffneys on the other hand, are one of those couples who’ve been married for so long that their lives are dull, romance is non-existent and their main focus is their children. This clear disparity between the two couples portray two extremes, which can be rather eye-opening and funny to watch on screen.
The film follows the typical formula of a comedy-action film, which essentially sets the film up through laugh out loud and often slapstick humour towards a critical point in which the tables turn for the worst. In this case, the Gaffneys discover the truth about the Joneses and stumble upon a much larger conspiracy.
It is this point in the film where the action really takes off but not in the way that I would expect. Hamm and Gadot come across as way to perfect, even in their natural habitat. The Gaffneys’ reactions, shock and screams at being attack seemed much too forced, much like the Joneses’ perfection. This blase attempt at being an action film really didn’t sell the film well to me. Eventually even the comedy dropped to the point that the film just felt like a mindless watch.
As with most films of this kind, the ending was completely predictable, if not far fetched. The Gaffneys didn’t seem all to worried about further threats and the twist in the film wasn’t even a twist. Really breaking the film down into components made me realise that this is one film that I will only ever watch once. Though it was funny at some points, there was only one little bit which made me laugh out loud, which is actually a disappointment as Zach Galifianakis films usually encourage more laughter. In fact, I was disappointed with Galifianakis in general in this film as he didn’t seem to have the same charm as before in his other films. John Hamm was probably the only actor in the film who really acted well, showing feelings, emotions, and really depicting a man who wanted more out of his life. The women were as stereotypical to their stereotypes as they come.
Keeping Up With The Joneses is a film that doesn’t require too much thought and therefore is difficult to truly disseminate for a critical review. It is a fun, mindless film to watch after a long week. I admit, I enjoyed the film at the time, and it certainly left me in a good mood but it isn’t one that I would really recommend or watch again. Hopefully Gadot will be a lot better in Wonder Woman.
