Don Jon

Rating: 5/10 (25 October 2015)

Don Jon, which was written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is an acerbic romantic comedy that asks what would happen if two people with completely unrealistic expectations of the opposite sex happened to be in a relationship. Jon, played by Levitt, is someone who lives his life without asking questions, only indulges in what he knows and likes, especially an addiction to internet porn. Oppositely, Scarlett Johansson's Barbara is a girl whose idea of a real man and true love is what she sees in the most saccharine of Hollywood movies. Traits handed down from their parents, it seems, Jon's father played here by a gauche Tony Danza. Jon's walk down the proverbial corridor of life sees him as someone more interested in playing with himself than playing with others, and even when he's joined on that walk by Barbara, his compulsions and her single-mindedness come to drive a wedge between them. The narrative here is fairly simple, however, especially during the first half of the film, in which the usual conventions of romantic comedy are adhered to in spite of the central character's compulsory masturbatory habits. And this makes for a slightly hollow veneer, in my opinion, especially with some horribly outdated and quite banal exchanges in which girls are rated out of ten. Which, had the dialogue and design not seemed so false, it probably wouldn't have been one of many issues I have with this film. Jon's wonderment that he can view porn on his mobile phone also left me bemused at the writing of a film that's nowhere near as sharp as it would like to be. Basically, it doesn't ring true. However, the introduction of a third character, played superbly by Julianne Moore, changes the dynamics of the film. Her ever-excellent screen-presence finds her well cast as a genuinely three- dimensional character with an emotional core. Here is where the best of the film takes hold, and that's also noticeable in how Levitt directs Moore and the scenes in which she appears. Still, I was disappointed with Don Jon, which is tame next to something like Shame, and is more generic than its fledgling director may have desired. But it isn't without interest or merit, given Julianne Moore's performance. But it needed to be smarter, shorter and that bit more daring.