Plot

A seemingly perfect family moves into a suburban neighborhood, but when it comes to the truth as to why they're living there, they don't exactly come clean with their neighbors.

"The Joneses", a social commentary on our consumerist society. Perfect couple Steve and Kate Jones, and their gorgeous teen-aged children Jenn and Mick, are the envy of their posh, suburban neighborhood filled with McMansions and all the trappings of the upper middle class. Kate is the ultimate trend setter - beautiful, sexy, dressed head-to-toe in designer labels. Steve is the admired successful businessman who has it all: a gorgeous wife, big house and an endless supply of high-tech toys. Jenn and Mick rule their new school as they embody all that is hip and trendy - cool clothes, fast cars and the latest gadgets. But as the neighbors try to keep up with the Joneses, none are prepared for the truth about this all- too perfect family.—Publicist

The well-off Joneses - husband and wife Steve and Kate, and their two high school student offspring Mick and Jenn - have just moved into a McMansion in an upscale neighborhood, they, among the "beautiful" people, outwardly affable and thus easy to make friends, who like to display and share their status-symbol toys with those they meet. The reason for this situation is that it is their job in not really being a family - none whose real surname is Jones - but the latest comprised unit of a stealth marketing company, their performance measured by how many units of their clients' merchandise they are able to sell to their targets i.e. their neighbors and others within their newly developed social circle, and the percentage increase in month to month sales, each situation for a year or two before moving on to working within the next unit of "Joneses" in another neighborhood. This unit is Kate's first as lead, she, a veteran in the industry, who is all business in striving for moving into the highest status level of the company in dealing with the highest end products. While their overall initial performance is good to excellent, cracks are slowly starting to form in the unit, Kate who has to deal with them as she is effectively the boss. Mick is getting tired of the make believe in hiding something inherent about his being. Jenn has a growing penchant for more mature men, this neighborhood ripe with them, including one in her own household. And for Steve, this his first job in the industry as a failed golf pro turned car salesman - hence he tasked largely with pushing cars and golf equipment - he took this job largely in moving into middle age and secretly wanting a real family, he potentially seeing Kate not only as a make believe wife. Their situation in this neighborhood reaches another level of complexity in dealing with their next door neighbors, the Symonds, Summer Symonds who is all about those status symbols as she too tries to push her beauty products to the neighborhood wives, and her husband Larry Symonds who does whatever he can to make Summer happy in a less than ideal home life.—Huggo

The Joneses - Steve and Kate and teenaged children Jenn and Mick - move into a suburban neighbourhood and seem the perfect family. Good-looking, successful, trend-setting, engaging - they seem to have it all and are the model family. However, all this is a façade and hides an astonishing secret.—grantss

Kate (Demi Moore), Steve (David Duchovny), Mick (Ben Hollingsworth), and Jenn Jones (Amber Heard) move into a high-income suburb under the pretense of being a typical family relocating due to the changing nature of Kate and Steve's careers. In reality, Kate is the leader of a team of stealth marketers, professional salespeople who disguise product placement as a daily routine. Their clothing, accessories, furniture, and even food are carefully planned and stocked by various companies to create visibility in a desirable consumer market. While Kate's team is highly effective, Steve is new to the team, Jenn is a closet nymphomaniac with a penchant for hitting on her fake fathers, and a 30-day review of the team is fast approaching. KC (Lauren Hutton) is the team's boss who monitor's their performance periodically. The neighborhood has an average income of over $100,000 per year and has 3 private schools. 3 private golf courses and 1 public course.

The team quickly ingratiates itself into the community, slowly shifting from displaying products to recommending them. Larry and Summer Symonds (Glenne Headly) are their next-door neighbors. Summer is a cosmetics salesperson herself. Steve spends no time in befriending Larry. Steve hits the golf course with Larry, while Kate visits the local salon owned by Billy (Chris Williams) who introduces her to his other rich clients. The kids enroll at private school. The family pushes everything from camera phones, golf equipment, sweaters, jackets, coffee machine, clothes, skateboards, cosmetics, electronics, beer, lawn mowers, video games and all other products that they can weave into their daily life. Summer is super impressed with Kate's house decor.

Soon, local stores and businesses are stocking products based on the Joneses' trend-setting styles. However, at the end of the 30-day review, Steve discovers that he has the lowest sales numbers of the team (Steve is up 3%, Jenn 14%, Mick 16% and Kate 20%), and Kate's job is endangered unless he can get his numbers up before the next review in 60 days. Steve was a great car salesman previously and was selected by Kate for her team. Kate throws a party at her home to generate some buzz and to get Steve's numbers up. She pushes gourmet frozen food at her party, along with several categories of gift items. Steve pushes his digital entertainment system and video games. Jenn flirts with a middle-aged Alex Bayner, while Mick hooks up with fellow student Naomi.

Eventually, Steve begins to find a sales tactic that works by playing on the fears of his neighbors and sympathizing with their dull, repetitive, unfulfilled careers.

As someone who is frustrated with his job and disconnected from his fake "family," Steve turned to their products to keep himself entertained. When he recognizes this same pattern in his neighbors, his sales begin to steadily increase as he starts pitching products as the solution for suburban boredom and generating product "buzz" through unwitting ropers. Basically, he starts engaging the community salespeople (like the golf accessories store owner at the golf course) & by influencing their choice, he makes sure that he reaches out to the whole community. His sales numbers start going through the roof, so much so that he becomes the best performer on the team.

It is clear that Steve pines for Kate, but she wants to keep the relationship strictly professional and sees herself as Steve's boss.

The team's dynamics become more complicated when Kate applies herself to the technique as well. Realizing that they can boost sales by perfecting their fake family dynamic to sell the image of a lifestyle, the lines between acting and reality start to break down. Things also get more complicated when Mick finds himself growing closer to an unpopular girl at the high school, Naomi (Christine Evangelista), in whom he can confide. Jenn's flirtation with Alex Bayner (Robert Pralgo) (one of the men in the neighborhood) raises the suspicions of the neighbors. Jenn has sex with Alex at his yacht. The team's cover is almost blown at several times during the job: once when an old acquaintance of Steve's recognizes him at a restaurant, again when Jenn's indiscretions nearly expose her real age, and after a party where Mick markets alcohol to minors.

Eventually, each member of the team finds that the constant pretense slowly erodes their individual desires. Jenn's dreams of running away with a rich, older man come to a close when she realizes that she was being used by Alex. Mick has a crisis of conscience when Naomi gets into a car accident after drinking too much of a wine cooler that the family was marketing to teens. Worse, when he tries to reveal that he is homosexual to Naomi's brother, he punches Mick in rage.

After creating nearly record-breaking numbers, Steve is offered the chance to join an "icon" unit alone. Steve mentions Icon status to Kate, and she thinks that KC made the offer to the whole family. Kate knows that the icon status is a huge deal as the cell would be bringing high end goods to market first.

Steve refuses the offer, knowing that this is Kate's dream and because he believes that the current "family" can do it together. Steve's closest friend in the community, Larry (Gary Cole), reveals that he's going to lose his house because he's overextended his credit. Steve tries again to see if Kate wants something more than a pretend marriage. She rebuffs him, and the next day Steve discovers to his horror that Larry has committed suicide over the debts.

Grief-stricken, Steve confesses to the community about the real nature of his job. With their covers blown, the rest of the Joneses leave quickly and are reassigned to a new home. Steve refuses the offer to join an icon cell and tracks the family down to their new location. There, he reunites with Kate and tries one last time to convince her to leave. Though hesitant she follows him out of town and agrees to meet his real family & parents in Arizona.