WORDS MEADHBH McGRATH

In his feature debut as director, writer and star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Jon Martello, a Jersey boy whose rigid GTL routine includes an addiction to online porn. All Jon cares about, as he frequently reminds us in voice-over, are “my body, my pad, my ride, my family, my church, my boys, my girls, my porn”. Jon’s routine is shaken up when he meets the ultimate “dime”, Barbara Sugarman (a spectacular Scarlett Johansson). Barbara has her own version of porn: she is looking for her Prince Charming, a man she can mould and manipulate into becoming exactly what she has come to expect from romantic Hollywood movies. By juxtaposing and equating their competing sexual and romantic fantasies, Gordon-Levitt effectively highlights the problems associated with media representations of intimacy.

Throughout the film, Gordon-Levitt attempts to deconstruct society’s strict notions of masculinity and femininity. Jon’s muscled-up father (Tony Danza) is held up as the ultimate man’s man, sitting at the head of the dinner table and leering approvingly when Jon brings home “a piece of ass”. However, in the course of his relationship with Barbara, and his new friendship with eccentric, troubled classmate Esther (Julianne Moore), Jon begins to challenge his strictly gendered worldview, coming into conflict with both his father and his new girlfriend. This clash of ideals becomes painfully apparent when Barbara is embarrassed by Jon’s insistence on cleaning his own flat — the antithesis of traditional masculinity.

Gordon-Levitt has described Don Jon as a platform for exploring how societal expectations of our gendered behaviours can have a harmful impact on personal sexuality. For Jon, his relationship with porn hinders his attempts to connect (emotionally and sexually) with another person. For Barbara, her fixation with on-screen romances provides her with an unrealistic understanding of human relationships. Gordon-Levitt plays around with this idea, as we see Jon and Barbara at the cinema watching an archetypal romance, Special Someone. It becomes clear that Barbara is as addicted to fantasy as Jon, but unfortunately her fantasy is left undeveloped past a joke.

Julianne Moore emerges as an unconventional catalyst in the story. First seen by Jon sobbing outside their night class, she later apologises and catches him watching porn on his phone, resulting in an unexpected friendship and an unexpected change in the film’s direction. While Gordon-Levitt is admirably eager to avoid playing it safe, the sudden shift in focus is accompanied by an abrupt change in tone — an ambitious move which the film fails in convincingly pulling off.

Although Don Jon ends on a rather saccharine note, Gordon-Levitt has succeeded in subverting the rom-com genre with this bruisingly funny and thought-provoking film, raising questions about sexuality, masculinity, porn, gender roles and objectification — no small feat for a directorial debut.