Mr. Jones (2013)

Purely Joyful Movie!

People are voting emotionally.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A dreaming couple downsize to the woods, where they enter a nightmare.Huge amount of skill in the storytelling. The opening sequence has lovely dialogue between a couple travelling in a car (the out-of-range phone conundrum is dealt with in seconds), then the editing flicks brilliantly through the exposition.But this doesn't hit the bass note needed for horror. Or, as an earlier reviewer said, it doesn't click and it's hard to tell why. It feels like an exercise in horror, rather than a horror, and I really didn't react to any of the scenes with fear, although there was tension throughout. The writer/director probably prefers original drama, rather than genre - if not he should stick with advertising.It gets back to the problem of treating horror as metaphor. Horror has nothing to do with reality - it is a dreamworld where the bizarre is made literal. So in this case the stolen package has to be the core, has to be explained consistent with the dreamworld. Instead, it's treated as a symbol and we never find out what's inside. This is genre - it's that simple. David Lynch is an exception.So much to admire about this: writing, directing, editing, sound. And the actors were good. But not a good horror.

(Warning: some spoilers in second half. Read the first half for a quick look). I feel like this movie is very underrated. I read the many bad (and some good) reviews, became unsure, but gave this movie a shot and I do not regret my decision. You can't look at this movie realistically. I looked at this movie as a myth/urban legend put together as a film and ended up loving it. I will admit it got confusing at times and it had it's moments of "Why would you do that?" but if you pay attention everything makes sense. Truly. In short, this movie is about nightmares and what we do to keep them at bay. It takes a look at the consequences that happen to those who mess with nightmares. Look at the movie like that and you will enjoy it a lot more.More in depth: Mr. Jones is just the nickname given to an unknown man who protects the real world from the dream world. He does so by using these scarecrows, something used often to scare away spirits. It has been used in many cultures throughout history. It's really not hard to understand that. You mess with these wards and you pay the price. That's exactly what happens to the protagonists Penny and Scott. It does get trippy and confusing a little past halfway through but the way I saw it is that as a result of their meddling both of them started to live in their own nightmare, being constantly deceived and tricked by these monsters. They don't know what's real and what's not. That's what a nightmare is like. That's what the two main characters fight through.

Mr. Jones is now streaming on Netflix, and when I came upon it I think I was taken in by the striking cover art (it's not the one listed here on IMDb). It's of one of the "statues" in the movie, silhouetted against a plain background, with some relatively cheery looking writing underneath it. It's a hell of a poster, and a great advertisement for the film.It's a pity I can't say as many good things about the film, because I really wanted to. Something about the film doesn't quite click, and it's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is. The action is good, the villain is creepy, and there's a good story. All ingredients that a horror movie needs to nail. Even the acting is good, much better than it needs to be.As I said though, it just doesn't... click. The format chosen for this film was a really, really bad choice. It's completely overdone, and it doesn't suit many films at all(I can think of 2 films where this choice worked). All it really does here is serve to rip us straight out of the action on screen, made even worse by those obligatory moments where the camera dramatically cuts out and random, documentary-style interviews littered throughout the middle sections.The closing sections of the film are also strewn with bad choices. It slips into a slinky, Lynchian nightmare for the last half hour, which is good on a purely visceral level (it's well made) but it feels practically unrelated to the rest of the film and offers us no progression on what we've already seen. It's all style and no substance, which is a shame when the film actually sets itself up so well.This is a film that may be enjoyed by some, but not by most. Some films don't need an ending, and do well by leaving out a definitive one. This is not one of them.

I don't really have much to say about this movie.Its sound like good movie to me but I found very boring for most of the movie. That really annoyed it the movie was far to confusing to follow and I didn't really understand what the hell was going on,I didn't the fact it going back and forwards were other people were taking about Mr JonesI Did not find any of the movie scary or anything but There were some weird moments in the movie, which kind of liked even thought that really puzzled by the story.I thought the acting was really good in this moviei going to give this movie a 3/10