Film Review: Don Jon

“I thought a romantic comedy about the relationship between a guy who watches too much porn and a girl who watches too many romantic Hollywood movies would be hilarious and get to the point. That’s how it started.” – Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Known for brilliant movies such as Inception, playing the steely cop in Dark Knight Rises, a lovelorn outsider in (500) Days of Summer and a cancer survivor in 50/50, I had high hopes for Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s latest foray into cinema with DON JON – and luckily I wasn’t disappointed.

DON JON stars Gordon-Levitt as Jon Martello, a guy who cares about only a few things – his body, his pad, his ride, his church, his family, his boys, his girls…and his porn. With Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac due out soon and following last year’s Shame, sex addiction seems to be ripe for exploring in cinema.

Gordon-Levitt certainly doesn’t pull any punches in his depiction of the subject (of which he also co-wrote and directed). Called Don Jon by his boys due to his ability to ‘pull’ women, Jon is open about the fact that no matter how many women he brings back, they just won’t live up to his love of pornography. That is, however, until he meets Barbara (played by every man’s fantasy Scarlett Johansson) who is a good old fashioned New York girl, raised on a diet of Hollywood movies as she waits for her Prince Charming to whisk her off into the sunset. Wrestling with stereotypical expectations of the opposite sex, it’s interesting to watch the young couple grapple with trying to find true intimacy against a media culture of false fantasties and unrealistic expectations.

 

The movie features some hilarious moments and some great character acting – Julianne Moore’s turn as the widowed night-school student who befriends Jon is particularly well pitched and the chemistry between the two manages to hold the movie together towards a slightly wilting second half.

While Don Jon might be the first American mainstream comedy to highlight pornography – why we watch it, and why people continue to keep watching it – its writer and director is quick to point out the movie he’s made isn’t really about porn at all. “I wanted to tell a love story,” Gordon-Levitt says. “But what I’ve observed is, what often gets in the way of love is how people objectify eachother.”

Don Jon is a provocative, fun and very frank look at a host of very thorny topics – namely objectification of women, intimacy, today’s media and what love really is. Gordon-Levitt manages to find depths in this essentially quite sad (and initially pretty unlikeable) title character which saves the movie from potential silliness at times. It’s a bold and surprising anti-romantic comedy that takes a hard, clear-eyed look at modern relationships and expectations – a must watch.

Don Jon is in cinemas from tomorrow (Friday 15 November) across the country. See the trailer below:

LMNH x