Surprisingly Good First Directorial Effort

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2013)

DON JON is a really good film from writer-director-star Joseph Gordon- Levitt. He plays Jon, a young New Jersey Catholic with a penchant for porn. Although perfectly able to attract several girlfriends, he prefers to watch simulated sex on his computer, something that ensuring the eventual breakup of his relationship with Barbara (Scarlett Johansson). It is only when he encounters middle-aged widow Esther (Julianne Moore) on his university course that he learns to reform. The film makes great comic play out of the contrast between Jon's sexual appetites and the respectability of his life; he regularly confesses his sins in church and visits his family every week for dinner. But then Jon himself seems unaware of this disparity, which is perhaps inevitable, given his inability to understand what other people around him are thinking. Scarlett Johansson turns in a nice performances as the gum-chewing, eminently respectable Barbara, contrasted with the more worldly-wide Esther. But the film belongs to Gordon-Lewitt (as actor), whose gradual change of character is signaled through minimalist gestures and/or changes of expression. Very well worth watching.