Movies: Don Jon

Score:  **** out of ***** (A-)

Long Story Short:  Don Jon is truly Joseph Gordon-Levitt's film - in addition to being the lead, he wrote and directed it as well.  And under his control, we get a very solid film, equally entertaining and thoughtful.  Gordon-Levitt doesn't tread lightly around the controversial subject of porn, but nor does he gross you out (OK, not too much, anyway); mostly he makes you laugh about it.  Along with a strong script and good performances (esp. from Johansson), this is a film well worth seeing.


Who would have thought?  Two interesting, good movies released in September - and available in my non-city area!  With Gravity coming out this weekend, I'll have at least three consecutive weekends with a movie review, and it could very well keep going.  As for Don Jon, I heard a little blurb about this being written, directed, and starred in by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a preview of 2013 movies.  The little film has finally gotten a wide release after being showcased at film festivals.  I am a fan of Gordon-Levitt's, and with an interesting premise and good reviews (~80% on RT), I decided to give it a try.  In addition to Gordon-Levitt's involvement, Don Jon stars Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore.

Before the primary story breaks out, Jon Martello (Gordon-Levitt) shows and narrates the life he's living.  He's a young man (early/mid-20s?) with a very specific routine in which he conveys manliness to the outside world while his own world is consumed by porn.  Both his friends, who hang out with him at clubs, and his family, who encourage him to start his own family ASAP, drive him to keep up this lifestyle, albeit for opposing reasons.  One night at the club, Jon finds a particularly sexy woman, Barbara (Johansson), but she refuses to go home with him.  Still, Jon determinedly pursues Barbara over the next few weeks, and eventually goes on a date with her.

It isn't long before Jon is disappointed despite getting to date his "dream girl"; Jon finds himself returning to porn, and she has her own not-so-secret obsessions.  Jon begins to go to night classes to try to improve their relationship, but he doesn't fit in with the people there - including an older single woman (Moore) who seems attracted to him - and he becomes even more dissatisfied.  Something's gotta give - you'll just have to see what it is!

Don Jon has an impressive, charismatic cast that's well-suited to the tone of the film.  Gordon-Levitt is the lead as "Don" Jon Martello, and he does a very good job.  Yes, the film is in part rom-com, for which Gordon-Levitt's natural charm is a good fit, but he is just as effective in portraying a realistic, horny young man.  He's perhaps a little too earnest to ever be an elite actor, but his style works here and provides some great humor (describing his porn habits in his macho-infused, unironic way of speaking, for example).  Scarlett Johansson does perhaps the best acting I've ever seen from her, playing girlfriend Barbara.  She has all the little details of her character down perfectly, from the accent to the body language.  Without giving anything away, I was expecting her character to develop one way and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't - to Scarlett and the script's credit.

Julianne Moore, one of the best actresses around at the moment, does well as night student Esther.  She manages to combine her character's life experience with an equally deep sense of loneliness and a little insecurity, too.  Although I found Joseph and Scarlett's character's more interesting, Julianne makes hers as good as it can be.  Tony Danza plays Jon's father, and is another good fit.  He doesn't really stand apart from other similar working-class fathers (de Niro's character in Silver Linings Playbook came to my mind), but he provides good humor.  Finally, watch for some brief but hilarious cameos from other stars in clips from some fake films.

Like Prisoners, Don Jon has two main objectives in mind; here, it's to be both romantic comedy and dramatic analysis of media's affect on our lives.  The romantic comedy part is to be purely entertaining and draw in couples (which seemed to work at the show I went to); the best part of this is that Don Jon ends up subverting the rom-com genre expectations - not completely, but still more than enough for me.  The more interesting, serious (although humor is appropriately, effectively used, too) part is the less glamorous portrayal of everyday life (mostly from Jon's young-man perspective, but also some commentary on women's lives, too).  Gordon-Levitt smartly replays the routines of Jon's life using key details (eg: the hum of a computer turning on) to symbolize repetition - a repetition, by the way, that does not get tiresome.  Don Jon shows that we can get mentally and emotionally addicted to not just specific activities (porn), but also to plain old routine itself.

***

As Gordon-Levitt's debut as the director and writer of a feature film - not to mention its star, too - Don Jon is a very impressive achievement.  I enjoy him in just about everything I see - from 3rd Rock to Looper to The Dark Knight Rises - and now he shows great promise behind the camera, too.  The editing, writing and filming all display professionalism; although you could argue that the emphasis on routine in the story is a crutch for him to lean on (so that he didn't have to come up with something new each frame), the film works and that's all I care about.  The running time is also just about perfect at about an hour and a half.  A few things drag Don Jon down, such as threads that go nowhere and elements that seem superfluous, at least in how they're handled in the film (his religious faith).  And while Jon's addiction to porn is realistic, he could have used a few more flaws to make it even more believable (at times you can almost seem him think, "gosh, if I just weren't addicted to porn, I'd be perfect!").  Still, Don Jon moves at a good, entertaining clip, with charismatic performances, good humor, and some interesting bits for your brain to chew on.  Highly recommended.