Don Jon Movie Review

Finally.

If you couldn't already tell, I have been waiting to see Don Jon for months now. At last my waiting has ended and I can finally give you my review.

Don Jon is written and directed by young talent Joseph Gordon-Levitt plus stars him in the lead role as Jon Martello. Nicknamed "Don Jon" by his over-the-top and cartoonish friends for his ability to pull attractive women at bars every single week, Jon is a handsome and an attractive guy who objectifies everything in his life. However, he kind of has an addiction to pornography leading to difficulties and unrealistic expectations from relationships. Jon starts to date Scarlett Johansson's character Barbara and his porn addiction becomes a problem for himself and his relationship. While Don Jon has it's flaws, it is still a confident, flashy and off-beat romantic comedy with some good social commentary in there.

Don Jon is at it's most effective through it's writing. The script and the dialogue that comes from it are masterfully and realistically crafted by Gordon-Levitt. Taking both sides of the argument into account, a lot of the things the characters said I sat there nodding along agreeing with it, which is testament to how real the dialogue is.

While it could have become just a romantic comedy with a potentially different twist, Don Jon excels further through it's social commentary. It just has so much to say about how men develop these unrealistic expectations about sex through pornographic videos plus how women develop unrealistic expectations about relationships through watching romantic movies. Both of them are the same despite pornography having a more graphic nature. Relationships and sex are both 2 way things and Don Jon explores that well.

The acting is good across the board and pretty much everybody does a sound job with the performances. Gordon-Levitt plays the likeable Jon with confidence, Johansson does a great job with her realistic take on a strong-willed New Jersey women plus Julianne Moore and Tony Danza do good jobs playing the emotionally-damaged Esther and Jon's traditional father respectively.

While at times the story can seem a little repetitive due to Jon's objective and articulate nature, the primarily same-old scenes begin to show you the bigger picture of Jon's pornography addiction plus the toll it takes on his life at various points. This does come across as an obvious method of story-telling but that doesn't effect you for long as Don Jon soon directs you towards the path of thinking about the stuff it's trying to tell you.

Jon's friends, as mentioned previously, are weak links within the story as they don't seem to fit with the realistic tone Don Jon set out at the start. Also, the character of Jon's sister probably doesn't even need to be in the movie at all.

The 90 minute movie sees Jon's sister say absolutely nothing throughout save one line towards the end. The line of dialogue she does say is important to the story but when she does say her point it is already apparently obvious. She was either under-used or didn't need to be there most of the time.

90 minutes was also very short and the ending is probably the weakest part of the entire story due to it's rushed and slightly inconclusive nature. Other than that the movie's editing is top notch.

For a first directorial effort Don Jon is a top notch effort from Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Some charged up song choices and top notch, quick-cut editing just goes to show the flair and confidence Gordon Levitt has in his own abilities. Also impressive was the camera detail and placement, which allowed the filmmakers to show pornographic clips without the pornographic content.

Overall, Don Jon isn't as great as I thought it would be and some minor problems with it's story and characters did throw me off a little bit. However as a first attempt Don Jon is top notch, moulding in some clever and balanced social commentary with sharp and funny writing, quick editing and camera work.

Don Jon has a few floors, but is a smart romantic comedy that I really enjoyed:


Rating - B+


1 sentence summary - A cleverly written, edited and shot romantic comedy that's a lot smarter than you think!


I hate romantic comedies, and the way Don Jon poked fun at them was incredibly satisfying for me personally. Solid movie, worth a watch.

Thanks for reading,
Matt