I like the general premise of this movie, that people regularly allow their behavior to be controlled by market forces no matter how unscrupulous and exploitative those forces are. Directly exploring the idea that we all too easily allow greed-driven marketers to manipulate us into spending large amounts of money - which we often cannot afford, as exemplified by the eventual fate of the next-door neighbor - is laudable and this film does not completely miss the mark on that point. However, when one of the characters gets a new car in which the make of the car is so blatantly showcased by name and visually, and several characters are fawning over the car, I began to wonder just which group of oblivious innocents was really being sold a bill of marketing goods: the neighbors via the plot, or we the audience via yet another movie become multiple ads?
The acting is good, the script is weak and the plot is an interesting idea but not developed very well and is not believable at all. There seem to be many practical and even legal difficulties:
1. Is it really financially feasible to outlay the expenditure required to establish this affluent fake family, to justify increasing the spending habits of the people they come into contact with?
2. Can the marketing corporation really track the success of individual members of the fake family well enough even to know specifically which family member has caused increased spending in specific industries? (Mom is the only one who increases spending in make-up, Dad is the only one who influences sporting goods sales, Son is the only one who influences video-game sales, etc? Please.)
3. Are the family members who are posing as high-school students really high-school aged? If they are I would think there are all kinds of labor laws being broken and numerous other legal problems, and if not then having an overage person enrolled in a high school and under a necessarily false identity is probably illegal in every state also. Either way, the likely prospect of sexual activity between the fake kids and the minors they encounter, which seems to be encouraged by the marketing company they work for (the visiting supervisor pushes them to establish boyfriend/girlfriend relationships) is a major legal stumbling block.
4. Can fake family units really be set up over and again with the necessary secrecy maintained? It seems a tactic destined to be exposed eventually, and to cause a lot of damage to the marketing company involved and the products they promote.
This is far too much disbelief to suspend. Even movie audiences have limits to our gullibility.
The acting is good, the script is weak and the plot is an interesting idea but not developed very well and is not believable at all. There seem to be many practical and even legal difficulties:
1. Is it really financially feasible to outlay the expenditure required to establish this affluent fake family, to justify increasing the spending habits of the people they come into contact with?
2. Can the marketing corporation really track the success of individual members of the fake family well enough even to know specifically which family member has caused increased spending in specific industries? (Mom is the only one who increases spending in make-up, Dad is the only one who influences sporting goods sales, Son is the only one who influences video-game sales, etc? Please.)
3. Are the family members who are posing as high-school students really high-school aged? If they are I would think there are all kinds of labor laws being broken and numerous other legal problems, and if not then having an overage person enrolled in a high school and under a necessarily false identity is probably illegal in every state also. Either way, the likely prospect of sexual activity between the fake kids and the minors they encounter, which seems to be encouraged by the marketing company they work for (the visiting supervisor pushes them to establish boyfriend/girlfriend relationships) is a major legal stumbling block.
4. Can fake family units really be set up over and again with the necessary secrecy maintained? It seems a tactic destined to be exposed eventually, and to cause a lot of damage to the marketing company involved and the products they promote.
This is far too much disbelief to suspend. Even movie audiences have limits to our gullibility.