Joseph Gordon Levitt has been on the rise the past few years. Starring in huge movies like Inception, The Dark Knight Rises and Looper. But, this is his first time in a writing and directing role. It's a romantic comedy, but far from the traditional one you'd expect it to be. Don Jon follows the story of Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Jon lives his life according the things he most cares about, "His body, pad, ride, family, church, boys, girls, and porn." He explains that even though he gets girls, he gets more gratification out of porn. His best friends, Bobby and Danny (Rob Brown and Jeremy Luke), call him "Don Jon" because he always goes home with at least an eight out of ten girl. One night Jon spots a ten out of ten, in Barbra (Scarlett Johansson), and fails to land her. Jon can't get her out of his head as he takes the time to track her down and ask her out. Brabra wants a traditional relationship and Jon will ultimately have to choose between her and his porn.
This is a fun little movie, and even after all these months waiting, it was a fun watch. Joseph Gordon-Levitt really embodies his role as Jon. Who could blame him, this was his debut as a writer and director. The acting is fine by the rest of the cast too, especially Julianne Moore. Her character almost serves as a unwanted moral conscience to Jon throughout this movie. Scarlett Johansson is fine a over-bearing Barbra, while Jon's best friends serve as decent comedic relief. There's a moment near the end of the film, where Brie Larson utters one profound line, her only of the film, and it got to me. Mostly because I'm a fan of Kevin Smith, and I love when Silent Bob gets his moralistic moment to shine in his films. Also, because it was just a damn good line. The story is pretty fun too. A man so entrenched in his addictions, porn, sex, working out, etc, has to really find out what's important to him in life. It's fun to watch his transformation as he breaks out of his own shell and branches out a little more in his life. The comedy is pretty solid as well as there a few laugh out loud moments and lines that will bring a smile to your face. I also loved the cameos from celebs, like Anne Hathaway and Channing Tatum, in his fakes movies shown in the film.
The marketing, in case you hadn't heard, was genius. As Joseph Gordon Levitt got teaser trailers to run on sites like PornHub before videos. But, enough of all the talking. Don Jon is a movie that had a ton of potential, but didn't quite live up to all of it. While it's a fun take one romantic comedies, I found myself to be kinda bored in the middle portion of the movie. The rest was good, between the story, acting and humor. This is a movie I'd been waiting awhile to see, and I'm glad it (mostly) lived up to expectations.
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