REVIEW: JEANS OF JONESES

​ JEAN OF THE JONSES - A lesson family drama screenwriting. #NowPlaying on Hulu.

Family dramas are about feelings. Feelings are hard to track, can get monotonous, or lost in the sauce. For this reason, those feelings must be attached to external goals (big or shall). Getting closer to or farther from that goal causes their feelings to ebb and flow ultimately leading them to progress or regress in those emotions (character arc).

In JEAN OF THE JONSES, Jean has some inner work to do. She is able to eventually get herself on the right track as she digs into her unknown grandfather's past making each family member spill their secrets. Without something for us to track - the funeral planning - we'd just be watching a lost soul with no intention. 

There is a lot going on in this film thematically. There's some great stuff with how we pass on toxicity and how female children are treated then blamed for how they respond to that treatment. Some of the adult children are in the middle of recreating the cycle. But theme cannot stand alone. We need grandpa's death for the theme to be impactful. 

Have you seen it? What're your thoughts?

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AUTHOR

Shannan E. Johnson is a former creative executive at The Syfy Channel turned CEO + Head Consultant of The Professional Pen, a script consultancy that develops screenwriters from idea to pitch to become more confident storytellers ready for a professional screenwriting career, and consults with scripted development teams at entertainment companies to streamline their notes process to get to pre-production more efficiently.