Don Jon Review
It just isn’t fair. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was attractive and a successful actor. Now add writer and director to that repertoire, come-on now….leave a little for the rest of us mortals. JGL takes off the training wheels and stretches his legs for his very first writing and directing attempt and for those of you holding your breath, you can let it out. Not bad, JGL. Not bad at all.
The story starts off well enough. JGL plays Jon, a stereotypical Jersey-Italian alpha male (See Mike the Situation for details) He spends his days working out, his weekends with his church and family, and his nights earning money as a bartender, chasing tail at his night club, and basically having sex with any woman he sets his sights on. But when he meets Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), a real “dime piece,” he starts making changes to his life to get with her. He thinks that it’s love, but over the course of the movie he learns what the word love means and how it will change him.
If Jon was a little less macho we’d basically have ourselves another Nicolas Sparks regurgitation on our hands. But, there is one more thing that makes this not your average love story: this guy watches porn and masturbates every day. So why does Jon, basically the guy every young man wishes they could be, pleasure himself when he could have any woman he wanted at any time? That’s easy, he’s an addict, and the movie more than explicitly states why Jon prefers porn to real girls. JGL does an excellent job of setting up Jon’s character right away. It’s refreshing to see a character that’s simple and honest. We know right off the bat who we’re dealing with and his character is immediately likeable and relatable. |
Okay, maybe not his “super-Guido” but the real person underneath. Despite his epic attractiveness and charisma, he’s got anger issues, a sprinkling of OCD, and the whole addicted to porn thing. He’s not well educated and has few prospects beyond his bartending gig, but for now he’s content. As we keep hearing in the trailers, he literally only cares about a few things: his body, his pad, his car, his family, his church, his boys, his girls, and his porn. But it is obvious that the character, even if at the beginning it’s subconscious, is looking for something more. He’s tired of the routine, he’s tired of just bringing home the random girls, and he’s tired of just “jerking-off” with women. He wants more, he wants a real connection, and “to lose himself” like he does with his porn.
The message here is something I think that many people can embrace and relate to. We’re all looking for something special, and I think this movie takes an interesting and more honest approach to sex and love. It may seem too rudimentary but I actually like the way the movie chose to express its big themes through the narration of the main character as opposed to having them expressed through metaphors and events. The comparison to a typical Rom-Com and the “making love vs. sex” theme was clearly stated at the beginning and then shown. So yeah, maybe that’s not very artistic and being way too obvious, but in my book you don’t lose points for sticking to the fundamentals. It wasn’t fancy, but it still worked; so, kudos. |
The
movie does a very good job towards the beginning creating the character and
building up the themes and messages and could have had a pretty spectacular
ending, but coulda-shoulda-woulda.
Jon’s relationship with the character Esther (Julianne Moore) which is
of paramount importance to the transformation of the character is horribly
rushed and all in all the major failing of the movie. The beginning is fast paced, outrageous,
offensive, funny, and then the whole thing takes a complete 180. The plot slows down and gets very emotional,
very fast. The writing is spread too
thin and there are too many characters to give enough time to everyone. In the
end it would have been better to take back some of the porn scenes and tone
down the shock factor to put more time in character interaction. With such a great set-up and some very
interesting themes to explore it’s a real shame that it just abruptly pulls up
and falls flat. In the end, it feels
like only half the story of Jon’s growth is told and what’s left in just
unfinished. All that being said, what is there is still good, and the performances here are pretty solid. JGL does well with Jon and it’s easy to buy his confident swagger…he just needs to work on his tough guy walk a little bit. I especially enjoyed the bit where he’s rapping in the car. Julianne Moore is always spectacular, but she doesn’t get enough screen time here. Her character should have been given a much more prominent role. The real highlight is Scarlett Johansson, who I think for the first time is more than just a pretty face. She’s been Hollywood’s Barbie Doll for a long time and I don’t think ever really taken seriously, but this was a very strong performance for her. She does a very good job as a high-maintenance woman “who is worth the wait.”
Overall, there were a lot of high expectations for this movie, and in a lot of ways it delivered, but tripped at the finish line. A funny movie, with some real heart and a lot of laughs. Go and see Don Jon, you won’t regret it.
Overall, there were a lot of high expectations for this movie, and in a lot of ways it delivered, but tripped at the finish line. A funny movie, with some real heart and a lot of laughs. Go and see Don Jon, you won’t regret it.
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