Don Jon

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlet Johansson, Julianne Moore

Directed by: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Rating: I Liked It

When I first heard that Levitt was writing, directed, and starring in a movie, I was 100% on board. From his days on Third Rock from the Sun, I was a fan. Since he's taken on roles in 10 Things I Hate About You, The Dark Knight Rises, and Inception, among others, I've only come to appreciate his talent even more. However, writing/directing is a whole different ballgame than acting, but Levitt definitely stepped up to the plate here. 

I watched the movie, or started to I should say, with my roommate. She gave upon the film about twenty minutes in after the word "p***y" was used at least a couple of dozen times. She's not a fan of the word in general, but even someone who doesn't mind foul language at all might have been on the border line of offended in this case. Levitt knew what he was doing, though. He was setting up his character to make a huge change by the end of the film, and you can clearly see that transition. 

Jon (Levitt) is a guy who spends his days taking care of his body and his car, while his nights are spent picking up different women for meaningless sex. On top of that, no matter how good the sex is, Jon has a pornography problem. I won't spoil it, but he goes into detail explaining his fascination in the film. He also explains there are only so many things that he really cares about, the four things mentioned above (his body, his car, his girls, his porn), along with his "pad", his family, his church, and his boys. Pretty much anything else means nothing. 

Then, one night at the bar, he meets Barbara (Johansson), and he turns his life around in lots of ways. They start to get serious, but she's not interested in sex until after they meet each other's family and friends, Jon gets a good job and gets back in school...basically, until she's molded him into exactly what she wants him to be. Through all this time we meet his family and his friends, all while learning a little more about Jon. We see him make a transformation, learning a lot about himself and deciding that he needs to make some decisions. 

It's a cool story to watch unfold at my age. If you put the porn addiction to the side, Jon is just a twenty-something trying to figure out what's going on in his life, exactly what most of the people watching this movie probably are. For that matter, it might not be porn addiction, but most of us have something that complicates our life to the same degree, some thing that we think about too much and never let anyone else know about. Levitt just presents this phase of life in a very entertaining way. 

The story is good, and there are moments that are great, if only because of how real they feel. I remember one scene with Barbara and Jon in a department store very clearly feel really, really awkward. Once Julianne Moore's character, Esther, enters the picture, you get a good idea of how things are going to turn out for everyone. The casting in this movie was great, too, espeicially Jon's family. His sister, who doesn't say anything until her enlightening line toward the end of the film, which makes it all that more enlightening. 

All-in-all, I'd recommend giving this a watch. It's funny but real enough to let someone my age connect with the characters and story. It's not one I'll probably ever watch again, but I'm glad I finally sat down to watch it the one time through.