Mr. Jones (2013) Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: A couple staying in the middle of nowhere encounter a mysterious artist as zany antics ensue.

Review: Not to be confused with a chick flick of the same name, this "Mr. Jones" is disappointing as hell when it had a cool premise. I don't know what they were trying to accomplish with half-assing the found footage angle while mostly following a conventional film's approach. Just pick one! I would have preferred they simply chose to make this like a regular movie as it would have allowed the events to play out smoother and with more chance to build up the story. I mean, if you're going to go to the length to claim the main couple would have a camera looking over their bed, why would you show shots that are clearly not being recorded by anything? Beyond this technical confusion, the story goes nowhere and spirals into shenanigans quickly when it should have been played straight. Ugh...what a mess.

So the story centers on a couple, Penny and Scott, that decide to stay at a house, in the middle of god knows where, as Scott attempts to make a nature documentary. After a month or so the two begin to fight, because Scott just wants to sleep and enjoy the scenery (can't say I blame him there). One day, a shady character steals Scott's backpack while he's out filming and he chases the guy back to a shack that looks to be Leatherface's bomb shelter. The shady character has a bunch of scarecrow-looking sculptures that later Penny notices from an art book as belonging to a mysterious "Mr. Jones." Mr. Jones is apparently a nickname given to the artist, because no one knows who the hell he is or what's the point of his art. Scott is then prodded to make his documentary about Mr. Jones as he travels to interview alleged experts on the artist as well as those who have received his sculptures in the mail randomly. They hype up Mr. Jones quite a bit but sadly there is not a lot of payoff; in fact, I think they forgot about half the shit at some point.

When Scott returns, a few weird things do happen, but the couple tries too hard to fuck with Mr. Jones when they should have left well enough alone. I get that they're supposed to be curious, but why not simply approach the guy and ask questions? Maybe it's the weird mask he wears that scares them? Wait a minute...this guy is fucking Leatherface! The couple experiences bouts of hallucinations and nightmares as Scott eventually sneaks inside Mr. Jones' shack and finds an underground tunnel with an apparent ritual set up. After Scott idiotically decides to take a doll, all hell breaks loose with the couple seemingly sucked into a nightmare world. Nothing makes much sense, with the couple being pursued by doppelgangers trying to film them and Mr. Jones seemingly dying. There's something about dreams and nightmares and Mr. Jones being a shaman that protects the world from this different dimension and blah blah blah. I don't know and I doubt the creators do either. Scott manages to return the doll and everything goes back to normal but now he's Mr. Jones...or always was Mr. Jones? Ehhh. I say, forget all the bullshit you see in the movie--which should be easy since it doesn't make sense--instead, interpret the film as this: at one point Scott says he's off his medication. Combine that fact with the pressure to make the documentary and we can interpret the film as one giant psychotic episode. That makes a helluva lot more sense to me. Even if everything were meant to be real, there are a lot of unanswered questions. Why would stupid scarecrows stop this nightmare world? Why did Mr. Jones give sculptures to random people? How did all of this begin as it seems implausible to say the least? Oh whatever.

Overall, I thought this premise held a lot of promise, but it turned into a complete debacle at one point. They squandered every opportunity to do something cool like...I don't know...maybe making one of the scarecrows come to life, showing the nightmare world instead of just saying it's night that doesn't end, playing off these visions rather than stupid doppelgangers, etc. The attempt at found footage made little sense when there's no follow-through or consistency. Most aspects felt tacked on with questionable editing and no discernible flow to the events of the film. This story would have worked significantly better if the couple went looking for Mr. Jones as the basis for the film rather than stumbling on to him 20 minutes in and then wasting more time to establish the character. But, as much as the movie made little sense, it's not terrible and has its moments. It feels mediocre when the potential to do something unique was certainly there.

Notable Moment: When Scott and Mr. Jones are in the tunnel together and both turn off their flashlights. This was kind of tense and what they should have been doing more often.

Final Rating: 5/10