Don Jon is probably not the movie you think it is. It certainly wasn’t what I expected, which was a raunchy, laugh-a-minute comedy with a dash of heart and brains.
What I got was something far better: one of the sweetest, smartest, and most honest movies of the year.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as “Jon Martello,” a New Jersey guy with a great love for women, and, more importantly, for pornography, which he watches multiple times a day and finds much more appealing than real women. When he begins searching for a more meaningful connection than the ones he sees on his computer screen, he meets “Barbara” (a blandly grating Scarlett Johansson) and thinks he’s found exactly what he wants. Life isn’t that easy, though, and Jon finds himself in the middle of a journey to find what love and sex really mean to him.
It’s definitely an entertaining film, but what’s more, it’s well-crafted. Gordon-Levitt is as skilled a director and screenwriter as he is an actor, and he brings all of his talents to the table here, giving us a brave story that isn’t afraid to go a little darker and deeper.
It’s not perfect, of course. The ending is a little too easy, for example, and there are a few supporting characters whose roles don’t quite make sense. But for a filmmaking debut, it’s an astounding achievement.
One of the best things about the movie is the cast. Gordon-Levitt himself is outstanding, creating a tough, macho veneer and slowly peeling it away to reveal the lost boy underneath. Another highlight is Julianne Moore as “Esther,” a sad, lonely woman Jon meets at a night class. Moore brings her typical quirky grace to the role, along with a deeply touching amount of raw vulnerability.
The only real disappointment in the cast is Johansson, who, despite her arresting beauty, is about as compelling to watch as a cardboard cutout. While I can’t rule out the possibility that that wasn’t an intentional choice, it certainly isn’t one that works.
All in all, Don Jon is a flawed but brilliant little film that manages to hit on some weighty themes, from love to loss to addiction, without ever coming across as heavy or didactic.
If this is any indication of Gordon-Levitt’s filmmaking prowess, his future efforts will be even better.
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