“Don Jon”
“Don Jon” is a movie about a man who has a pornography
addiction. There are several interesting aspects of this movie. The main
character is a man, Jon, who is in his late twenties, early thirties. Jon is
obsessed with women. He receives the nickname, “Don Jon” due to his skill at
getting women in bed. His pornography addiction blocks him from having serious
lasting relationships. Jon is a Jersey Boy and portrays the typical image of a
Jersey Boy. He has a serious commitment to his time at the gym and has a lean,
buff body. Every Sunday after church he eats Sunday dinner with his mom, pop,
and sister. The two men casually lounge around the table in their wife beaters
as they eat and drink beer. They are a loud family, with the Jersey accent of course.
Jon comes off as the type of man who doesn’t want to be in a committed relationship,
yet believes there is that special person out there. He has a deeper love for
the whole concept of porn because he doesn’t have to cuddle or do anything when
all over. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ideas of Jon trying to
figure out who he is by overcoming his addiction, and the importance that two
particular women, Barbara and Esther, play in his life.
Jon knows what is important in his
life, “my body, my pad, my ride, family, church, my boys, my girls, and my
porn.” Jon works as a bartender and believes he has everything in life figured
out when really the entire movie is about him trying to figure out who he is.
Jon is a typical “meat head” Jersey boy who frequented clubs and women. However,
on the flip side, he attends a Catholic church weekly. The film accents the
reputation of the Catholic Church by confession. It doesn’t matter what you do
as long as you go to church, repent and give your tithes. Saturday night rolls
around and Jon is out with his friends at a bar hooking up with “randoms.” A
random is a girl that would rank highly on a 1 to 10 scale. Jon would seduce
her and take her home. The following morning he would go to church, every week
right as the church bells were chiming, but never late, sit through church, and
attend confessional. Every week the priest would tell him ten Hail Mary’s. On
occasion, it would be upped to twenty Hail Mary’s if he had sinned more.
Everything about Jon’s life in this
movie was routine; his orderly apartment, his nights out at the club, the way
he did his hair, going to church, watching porn. Throughout the movie, I seen
the repetitive pattern that Gordon-Levitt left for his audience. While Jon
thought he had it together, he really lived what is similar to a typical
college life with the girls, the job, and the clubs. He feels satisfied with
life, yet, reveals through actions that something is missing. Jon doesn’t
really do anything to try and change this, until Barbara comes into his life,
he settles.
When Barbara is introduced, she
comes off as the most important influence in Jon’s life. Later, we will find
that to be Esther. Barbara is a jersey Barbie girl. She is a “10.” She’s
skinny, long blond hair, perfect body, pretty face, tight clothes, and knows
how to play the seduction game. Jon instantly falls in love. His buddies are in
shock. Barbara plays a tough game of hard to get. Barbara coerces Jon into
exceeding his comfort zone, which he is willing to do, because of his
attraction for her.
Barbara gets Jon to do all kinds of couple’s
things like going to the movies. She withholds sex from him for the first month
and demands to meet his family. She also won’t allow him to settle and be a
bartender when he could advance to a higher position if he went back to school.
In turn she convinces him to go back to school. Barbara brings out a lot of
good qualities in Jon including bringing his family closer to one another. She
still wasn’t enough to keep him from porn. Early in the relationship she finds
him looking at porn. Barbara overlooks this at first, but later pulls up his
internet history only to find how bad his problem actually was. This ends the
relationship.
Ironically, Jon’s best friend
convinces him to still attend his weekly class, which is where he met Esther. Esther
is a middle aged woman with brown hair, attractive, but with a very frumpy
style. Esther plays the most important role in Jon’s life. Although, he
wouldn’t even speak to her at first. Frankly, she annoyed him by being nosey
and always trying to talk to him. She catches him watching porn on his phone
and decides to bring him a DVD of a porn she enjoys to the next class.
Eventually, they find themselves hooking up in the back of her SUV. Her
personality really causes Jon to think and see things in a different way. They
form a connection and confide in each other.
Jon enjoys porn mainly because he
feels all of his problems just drift away and he loses himself while he is
watching it. Up to this point, he doesn’t find this connection in another
person, not even Barbara. Esther tells him, “If you want to lose yourself in
another person it’s a two way thing, both people have to lose themselves into
each other.” She teaches him this. The connection they have and the in depth
conversations, really teach him to have a different outlook on sex and
relationships. Even though they are casually having sex and its nothing more
they are really close and have love for one another, but respect the fact that
neither wants anything serious. In the end what causes her to have the greatest
impact is he finally finds that fulfillment of the void he has been seeking to
fill, and quits watching porn.
Interestingly, he goes into
confessional and finally is able to say I made it an entire week without
watching porn. Don Jon’s reaction seemed to be stunned and disappointed, after
the priest tells him 10 Hail Mary’s. After all of the effort put in he still
seemed as if his efforts were at a loss. “Don Jon” purely advertises the
typical process to overcoming an addiction, and the feelings that lie under the
surface to create the problem in the first place. Gordon-Levitt did a great job
at showing the main characters struggles, overcoming them, and the people
required to help him get there.
“Don Jon.”
Dir. Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Perf. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Julianne Moore, and
Scarlett Johansson. Voltage Pictures. 2013. Film.
