[Review: IN THEATERS] DON JON (7/10)

Don Jon is a very strange directorial debut for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, in a role he’s now always known for playing. Here he is a New Jersey Guido who interestingly enough (perhaps the film takes places in the spring) doesn’t venture to the shore. Jon Martello cares about a few things in life: his apartment, his car, his family, his church, his boys, his girls, and – his porno. A sex addict porn ruins perhaps his most meaningful relationship with Barbara (played by Scarlett Johansson). Yet, do they share an emotional connection? I’m not so sure – the film attempts to have it both ways and for much of the first act is an interesting portrait of what the hell is wrong with Gen Y – or as a friend of mine says “thirty is the new twenty”.

Of course The Economist once found that friends with benefits has had a negative economic impact for prostitutes – why buy the cow when you can get the milk for a few shots on Jameson. But sex isn’t what Don Jon is after – he seeks sex as good as that in a porn flick, while he’s more than happy to bed a random “8” or “9”, it’s the “10” he keeps around until it doesn’t work.

Enter his most meaningless sexual relationship – Esther (played by Julianne Moore), an older women in crisis Don Jon finds himself annoyed and entranced. A weird path in a very strange film – it seems rather fitting.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is on to something here: the film is at once real and foreign – liberated and frustrated. Jon is charming: we see why women happily agree to go to bed with him and Scarlett Johansson has never looked sexier as a strong independent women who slightly nags her man to be better. She’s perfect in this role.

Will the movie be a hit? I’m not so sure – it reminds of Saturday Night Fever which is one of the ballsiest movies ever – it’s a crowd pleaser that ends in a rape and quickly finds redemption. It’s been called one of the most feminist films of all time. Don Jon is perhaps a film just as strange – in fact it does find its way into a confidently feminist ending where Jon gets exactly what he wants – and then some. It’s the kind of ending that could have used a little more time to really develop but then again Jon doesn’t need more time – he’s living in the now.

Screening: Dipson Amherst, Dipson Flix, Regal Transit, Regal Quaker Crossing, Regal Hollywood, Regal Walden Galleria.