Movie Review: Don Jon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuPXDuqicmo

Jon “Don Jon” Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) cares only about a few things: his guys, his girls, his pad, his car, his family, his church and his porn. This is a guy that goes out with his friends every weekend (to the same club apparently) and scores with the hottest chick in the club. But despite his ability to bang the hottest chick every weekend, he can’t really get off with real girls. He can’t “lose himself” with real women the way he can with porn.

His pattern of hooking up with women at the club continues until he meets Blonde Hottie (Scarlett Johansson). She lets Jon buy her a drink, dances with him, chats with him on the couch, but blows him off when it’s time for him to seal the deal. No bother at first. The night is young and he scores with the second hottest chick available.

But Jon can’t get Blonde Hottie off his mind, despite the fact that he doesn’t even know her name. After some swift detective work he finds out her name, Barbara Sugarman, and then her Facebook page, on which he asks her out for a proper date. This girl is not going to give it up right away like those other girls. She wants their sex to mean something. She wants to meet Jon’s friends, his folks (Jon’s dad is played by Tony Danza) and she wants him to meet her family and friends. She wants him to take a night class so he can stop working in the service industry, she doesn’t want him to talk about cleaning his pad in front of her. And one night after they finally sleep together, she catches Jon watching his beloved porn and begs him to stop.

Despite telling her and himself the he can stop watching porn any time and that he doesn’t need it. Jon. Can’t. Stop. He even gets busted watching it oh his phone by fellow classmate Esther (Julianne Moore). Jon spends the rest of the film trying to break himself of his porn habit and figuring out why he NEEDS it so badly that he can’t even masturbate without it.

My thoughts: I’m not really sure how I feel about this film (maybe a little annoyed), but it’s still with me. It was a bit weird to see Little Joseph Gordon-Levitt all juiced up like he’s Raahhn from Jersey Shore. His stereotypical portrayal of an Italian-American living in New Jersey has gotten JGL in a bit of hot water. Overall though, I think the movie was a nice way to distract myself for a couple hours.

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