H and I streamed this movie a few nights ago when the TV selection was particularly dismal. The description on the tin sounded promising. It hints at a dark secret that will be exposed. I was hoping for something really sorted and nasty. Instead, it turns out that the big secret is that they are not a real family; they are a lifestyle marketing team that pushes high end goods to their posh neighbors.
It is a cool and relevant concept for a story that is ripe for plumbing. There are many interesting places a story like this could explore like the morality of what they are doing, the shallowness of the rich and gated, the impact of advertising on our culture, what it means to be a family, if there is more to life than owning the best toys, what is the nature of happiness and success.... Pick one, or two, and you can have a really good story.
Sadly the movie cannot make up it's mind and turns into a pretty, but sprawling mess. The daughter has an affair that ends badly, the son ends up to be gay, the neighbor is spending more than he makes to keep up, the father isn't sure what he is doing is right and is in love with the mother. The only thing missing is the kitchen sink. The end result is a movie that says so much it all gets garbled together.
The one nice thing is that the plot follows a predictable three act sequence and has a happy ending. It made it a three out of five stars and an OK way to waste a couple of hours in front of the tube.
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