Don Jon (2013): A Film Review

Rating: 7/10 (22 December 2013)

Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a young guy who objectifies most of the things in his life, who has a bit of road rage, and spends way too much time watching porn. In other words; Jon Martello is your basic average guy in his 20's whose life is about to get a major lesson about relationships.
Gordon-Levitt continues to raise his movie star status here with some great work as the titular Jon. He's a stereotypical Guido bartender from New Jersey who is more satisfied from late night porn sessions with his laptop than he is with, as he and his buddies call it, "a dime." That all changes when he meets Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), a dime if there ever was one. Johansson is off the walls brilliant, throwing on a Jersey Shore accent for good measure.
The relationship that Jon and Barbara have is anything but perfect. Jon, as we know, is addicted to porn. Barbara take on relationships has been shaped by romantic movies like Titanic or any movie based on a Nicholas Sparks novel. Barbara sees Jon not so much as a boyfriend, but as a project. As the film progresses, Barbara tries more and more to shape Jon into the man that he should, at least according to all the movies she watches. He knows she isn't going to be very pleased when she discovers his secret, so he does what any grown man would do in a situation like this: Wrestle the dragon during the day when she's not around.
The real scene stealer in this movie, though, is Jon's family, who check off all the boxes in the wacky family stereotype department. His dad (played hilariously by Tony Danza) is always watching the football game from the dinner table and has no idea what a TiVo is. His mom (Glenne Headly) is always asking him when he's going to be getting married, despite the fact he doesn't want to settle down just yet. And his sister (Brie Larson) is always staring at her phone and only says one thing the whole movie.
'At times, the movie can get a little choppy. There were times when I had no clue what kind of movie Gordon-Levitt was trying to make. Julianne Moore's character, Esther, a student in a night class Jon takes because Barbara told him to, seems a little too convenient. It's as if Gordon-Levitt felt like there needed to be a character that would teach Jon the true meaning of relationships. It seemed felt like she took the lead in the third act instead of Jon. There was also an issue I had with Jon's sister in that the one line she has just so happens to make the most sense of anything else in the entire movie if you think about it.
Despite not being fully aware of what I was watching at certain points in the movie, Don Jon is still an entertaining piece of film. It serves as a great debut for Gordon-Levitt behind the camera (in case you didn't know, he wrote and directed this as well), proving that he is much more than the kid from Angels in the Outfield. It's one of the funniest movies I've seen this year, and probably the most accurate portrayal of modern relationships in over a decade.
FILM GRADE: B