Levitt is a good director and actor, but not a good writer

Rating: 3/10 (6 August 2014)

"Don Jon" is the writing and directorial debut of actor Joseph Gordon- Levitt. While Levitt has shown in the past that he is a talented actor, and "Don Jon" shows that he can be a good director, the film also shows that Levitt is not a very good writer. "Don Jon" attempts to make a realistic portrayal of modern relationships with a message to it, but everything is done so simplistically that it comes across as realistic as the relationships in "That '70s Show".
Jon (Levitt), or Don Jon, nicknamed by his friends, is addicted to porn because he finds it more engaging than actual sex. At a club, he tries to hook up with a woman he sees (Scarlett Johansson), but ultimately fails. Jon, thinking that a long-term relationship might be the key to good sex, asks around about the woman, Barbara Sugarman, before finding her on Facebook and asking her out on a date. As their relationship progresses, Barbara asks Jon to expand his future by attending a college course and forbids him from watching porn. At the college course, he meets a woman named Esther (Julianna Moore).
The relationship between Jon and Barbara is supposed to be a representation of a modern day relationship, but it takes more of a comedic standpoint on modern relationships than a realistic one, which would be fine if the movie was supposed to be a satire, but it wasn't. The aspect of Barbara not allowing Jon to watch porn and getting him to take a college course is something you can see happen in relationships, but then there's a part to show how poorly compatible they are that she forbids Jon from buying cleaning supplies for his apartment.
The relationship between Jon and Esther is also predictable once she starts bonding with Jon. You can see that Jon and Barbara are not working out and that Esther is more understanding that Barbara. All the movie leads up to is that even though Esther is older than Jon, they were more compatible because they understood each other better, which you can figure out well before the movie is over.
Jon is depicted as being a hardcore religious guy who goes to church and confession every week. After Barbara forbids him from watching porn, he lies to the priest (Paul Ben-Victor) in confession that he stopped watching porn. It is never given any explanation for why he did that. It's not as if the priest can tell Barbara that he is lying to her and wouldn't Jon consider lying in confession something he should never do?
Throughout the movie, Jon goes to visit his family and has dinner with them. His sister (Brie Larson) is constantly on her phone whenever she is seen, until the end when she explains why Jon and Barbara broke up. She was a completely pointless character who existed just to explain something to another character.
As I said before, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a good actor and "Don Jon" does show that he has the skills to be a good director. However, the movie also shows that Levitt's writing, not only of the story but also dialogue, is not good. There is supposed to be a realistic depiction of modern relationships, but the relationship is portrayed as something right out of a comedy, which I said would work if this were satire, but it isn't.