Don Jon, is the first full-length film directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who has previously directed a few short films) and, perhaps I'm biased since JGL is both attractive *and* incredibly talented, but I quite enjoyed the film despite its flaws.
I have to hand it to JGL: not many directors are capable of tackling the issue of pornography with any sense of nuance or moderation. Previous films about porn (or, rather, the porn industry) include such uplifting films such as Lovelace and Boogie Nights, in which characters (real or fictional) pretty much have their lives ruined by porn.
Don Jon is not exactly gung-ho about porn, but it is slightly more even-handed and light-hearted. However, I felt a bit spoon-fed by JGL's message that real sex between people who care about each other is more fulfilling than jacking it to an erotic video.
Btw...there is adult language in this review.
JGL plays Jon Martello, a young New Jersey guy living a pretty simple life. As he explains in a voiceover, there are only a few things he cares about in life: his body, his pad, his ride, his family, his church, his boys, his girls, and his porn. But Jon has a special relationship with porn. He lovingly describes how porn is far better than real sex, even real sex with a beautiful lady (Jon regularly takes home 8s, 9s, even "dimes" he picks up at clubs). In porn, you get the payoff with none of the work. The girls are willing to do stuff that real life ladies aren't willing to do. And there are no STDs or icky emotional complications. So as much as Jon prides himself on being good with the ladies, his true love is between himself and...well, himself (and his computer).
That is, until he meets Barbara (Scarlett Johansson, playing an equally sultry and grating Jersey girl). Barbara is beautiful--easily a dime, in Jon's estimation--and Jon decides he's in love with her. After catching him watching porn on his laptop one night, Barbara freaks out and makes him promise to never indulge in porn again. Jon agrees in order to placate her.
But over time it becomes clear that Barbara is very controlling--and not just about the websites Jon visits. At first, it seems like she just wants a serious, grown-up relationship with Jon: she insists on meeting his parents and friends, makes him wait to have sex with her, and encourages him to continue going to school in hopes that he can get a "real" job someday (Jon's a bartender). But all of the positives Barbara brings into Jon's life are not because she cares about who he truly is, but because she is shaping him to be the man *she* wants. Barbara has a fixation of her own: romantic movies with unrealistic expectations, and these movies are affecting her ability to accept imperfections in relationships.
The analogy JGL draws between romantic films and porn is not *entirely* accurate, but it does show how the media we consume leads to unrealistic expectations about other people. Mainstream porn promotes a certain body type and certain way of having sex. Romantic movies suggest that your "true love" will be all you need and fulfill you in every way. Both forms of media promote a selfish way of viewing love and sex.
Neither Barbara nor Jon fully understand that their preferred entertainment are fantasy-based and not reflective of reality. And both Barbara and Jon are selfish people with agendas who are stuck in their own ruts about how sex and love should be.
But since this is Jon's film, he begins to break out of his rut and open his mind to what he truly seeks in a partner and how good sex can be when it's actually meaningful.
<Spoilers, dawg!>
Jon engages in an awkward friendship that blossoms into a deeper relationship with Esther (Julianne Moore), an older woman he meets in his adult education course. At first, Jon barely perceives her (she's an old lady, and he doesn't care about old chicks), but by the end of the film, the two have a couple intensely intimate scenes that in my mind make the film. They also engage is some very heavy-handed discussions about porn that, as I mentioned above, feel like JGL is spoon-feeding his message to the audience. That, I didn't like so much.
</End spoilers>
One major drawback of Don Jon is that it treats pornography and porn-viewers as a monolith. We don't see much of the porn Jon watches (it's an R-rated movie, not an NC-17 movie, after all), but his voice over describes the "tits, ass, blowjobs, sex, and cum shots". The kind of porn Jon watches is what I'd consider "mainstream"--fairly vanilla and directed toward heterosexual men. Also, the movie draws a clear line between men and women when it comes to attitudes toward porn. Jon and his guy friends take porn for granted--it's just part of their lives. Barbara is flat-out disgusted by it. The other main female character, Esther, isn't disgusted by it, but points out that it's pretty cheap compared to "the real thing".
The are plenty of women who watch porn (and if you count written erotica, the number shoots up even further). There are also gay people and trans* people who watch porn. And despite the prevalence of mainstream (boring) porn, I can guarantee you that there is pornography for every kink, position, gender, political persuasion, and fantasy in the book. And--you might not believe this, but I swear it's true--there are *couples* that watch porn *together* (or even separately sometimes!) as part of their sex lives. Mind blown, right? Well, something's getting blown anyway.
Obviously, Don Jon isn't claiming to be an academic treatise on pornography, but it would have been nice if JGL had shown a few more shades of a topic that really isn't black and white. Also, the discussion about how much is too much is an important one, but instead of really examining how a person can become addicted to pornography, Jon is able to quit cold turkey when he meets the right person. That seems just an unrealistic as the romantic comedies Barbara is obsessed with.
Don Jon is a funny, very entertaining movie. The acting is excellent (Tony Danza gives a terrifying and hilarious performance as Jon's macho dad). There are moments of truth and poignancy scattered among a pretty simplistic and on-the-nose take on the topic of porn. But JGL's thesis, that with our world of endless media consumption, we are practically born and raised to objectify other people (particularly, women being objectified and men doing the objectification), is solid. The film makes the case that we have to re-train our brains to see other people as human individuals with needs of their own who aren't there to "complete" us if we want to have meaningful relationships. And I think that's a true and important message.
4 out of 5 stars
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