Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut Don Jon is like the more risque, rated-R-bordering-on-NC17 older
cousin of his quirky 2009 hit (500) Days
of Summer. Although not quite as inventive as that Marc Webb gem, Don Jon similarly studies romance
through the skewed perspective of a young, self-absorbed man and positions
itself as a takedown of rom-com clichés and traditional media portrayals of
relationships. The result is a hyper-energetic, scathing critique of the ways
Hollywood shapes both our love life expectations and our treatment of the
people around us that has just enough genuine emotion to prevent the snark from
feeling soulless.
Just like with any regular
romantic comedy, Don Jon’s success
rests heavily on the shoulders of its cast. Fortunately, Gordon-Levitt has
assembled a group of actors who are not only incredibly talented, but also
share precisely the right kind of chemistry and mesh well without threatening
to overshadow each other – not to mention, they all somehow manage to make the
exaggerated Jersey accents amusing rather than unbearably grating. As the title
character and inarguable lead, Gordon-Levitt exudes a delicate balance of
charisma and sleazy, douchebag arrogance as he struts around the screen in a
slicked-back pompadour and tank tops that deliberately show off his shockingly
muscular arms. With his gym-sculpted appearance, immaculately groomed bachelor
pad, preoccupation with sex and porn and unrelenting self-absorption, Jon is
like a 21st-century Patrick Bateman but without the whole
secretly-a-psychotic-murderer issue. The genius of the performance, though,
comes from the way Gordon-Levitt takes what could’ve been an amusing but wildly
unlikable caricature and convinces us that this character is capable of real
change, that he is, in fact, human. As Jon becomes gradually more aware of the
unfulfilling nature of his current existence, he taps into a repressed well of
lost, insecure tenderness that might break your heart in the film’s climax,
which also acts as a perfect example of how sex scenes can produce emotional
resonance, instead of being merely titillating diversions.
Of course, as the movie argues, a
truly effective relationship is a two-way proposition, so Joseph Gordon-Levitt
is complemented by a pair of finely-tuned performances from Scarlett Johansson
and Julianne Moore, who play the two other legs of an odd love triangle. Exploiting
her sex symbol reputation in order to subtly critique it, Johansson reminds
audiences, who sadly seem to have forgotten, that she’s much more than eye
candy. Many performers likely would have relied on the bubblegum-smacking,
plastic superficiality of her Barbara Sugarman, but Johansson goes further than
that, showing how Barbara uses her sexuality as both a weapon and armor in her
search for the perfect man. We sense (and wonder about) the past hurt and disappointments
that must have contributed to her narrow-minded, cautious approach to
relationships, and she gives renewed significance to the normally hackneyed
line “I thought you were different”. It’s a quietly challenging role that she
pulls off with ease. While she has less screen time and might have benefited
from some more detailed backstory, Moore is affecting as Esther, an older woman
doing her best to keep it together after experiencing a recent personal
tragedy. She avoids self-indulgent hysterics but offers up just enough of a
glimpse into her character’s inner sorrow that we understand how it’s a
challenge for her to simply make it through each day. Rounding out the best of
the supporting cast, Brie Larson steals scenes as Jon’s constantly texting
sister without saying more than a sentence of dialogue.
There are occasions when Gordon
Levitt’s status as a first-time director becomes evident. Although the
frequent, choppy cuts often serve a higher purpose by drawing attention to the
stylized nature of commercial moviemaking, the editing still could have been
more finessed, and the whole production stretches on a good five minutes or so
beyond what it needed to, emphasized by the intentional repetitiveness of
certain parts. Overall, however, he guides the project along with a strong,
purposeful hand behind the camera, perhaps aided by a childhood largely spent
in Hollywood. He demonstrates a keen knowledge of how films manipulate viewers
and amplifies technical components of the movie like the editing, lighting,
musical cues and the camerawork in order to expose how ridiculous it all is,
how the cinematic world is a construct rather than an unfiltered, accurate
reflection of reality. Don Jon is
about what’s left when we strip away all the layers of artifice, asserting that
embracing the real world will be more rewarding than fiction could ever hope to
be because it’s here and authentic. It shows the unattainability of perfection
while asking why we’re searching for perfection in the first place.
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