Screen Editor, Megan Furborough, finds Joseph Gordon-Levitt to be a many trick pony in Don Jon
Joseph Gordon Levitt’s directorial debut of a New Jersey lothario with a porn addiction is a smart, funny and surprisingly heart-warming story. This film is clearly a labour of love, and the passion that director, writer and star Gordon-Levitt has put into it is evident in the sharp directing and clever dialogue.
Gordon-Levitt is the titular Jon, who only cares about a few things in life – his body, his pad, his ride, his family, his church, his boys, his girls, and his porn. Such is the complex character of Jon, dubbed ‘Don’ by his two “boys” due to his success with women at the nightclub he frequents.
The only issue is that he can’t lose himself in sex with real women (it seems like a lot of hard work without much pay-off) – so the internet’s vast porn resources come in, an addiction that means only the chime of an Apple Mac turning on to get him going. He dutifully confesses his sins on Sunday, does his hail Marys and walks away only to start it all over again
Montages of the club, masturbation and confession scenes were clever, and clearly show the relentless cycle of Jon’s life under the grip of unconscious addiction.
That is until he meets Barbara (Johansson), a brassy New-Jersey blonde who is seemingly the woman of his dreams.
But in the same way that Jon’s porn gives him unrealistic expectations of women, a scene where Jon and Barbara go to the cinema – which contains a movie (starring Channing Tatum and Anne Hathaway) within the movie, and is one of the funniest moments – shows the unrealistic expectations Hollywood romcoms advocate in their tales of ‘true’ love.
Both formats are as false as the other – “Movies and porn are different, Jon. They give awards for movies,” Barbara says. “They give awards for porn too,” Jon fires back. He wants Barbara to be the submitting woman of his fantasties; she wants Jon to be The Man of her movies, making him go to night school and give up doing his own cleaning.
It’s not until Jon meets Esther (Moore), a classmate at night school, that this all changes.
Gordon-Levitt replaces the search for love with the search for acceptance, and despite the slightly awkward interaction between Moore and Gordon-Levitt, the ending of the film is heartfelt and sweet with Jon finally finding the kind of acceptance he was looking for all along.
Whilst Don Jon may not pull off its feminist sub-tones as well as it intends, this is a fun and likable film with a fantastic cast – and shows great promise for Gordon-Levitt’s future in directing.
Was Don Jon a triumph or should JGL stick to acting? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter or by commenting or rating below
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