Sundance has its favourite sons and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is becoming a prolific prince of Park City. The 31-year-old has virtually grown up in front of a crowd here, starring in world premieres of Mysterious Skin, Brick, (500) Days Of Summer and Hesher. He's brought his own short films to the festival and now comes the feature directorial debut.
Gordon-Levitt wants a hand in everything. Not long ago he launched the collaborative producers' group hitRECord.org, which is emblazoned over this movie's credits. In his on-stage introduction, the savvy little entrepreneur even told us which hashtag to use when tweeting about the movie.
I suspect the most appreciative 140-character shout-outs for Don Jon's Addiction will come from horny teenage boys. Gordon-Levitt's R-rated rom-com is a frequently boorish tale about a superficial Jack the Lad who grows up, and has at its heart a sweet message about love.
The man himself plays the eponymous Jon, an east coast Catholic cheeky chappy who works as a barman, pumps iron in front of a mirror and shags anything that moves. He is a conservative archetype who speaks his mind, loves his family, his pad, his car and his women.
Jon wears his heart on his sleeve, but he's not so forthcoming about his love of internet porn. As the character explains in repetitive voice-over, none of his conquests quite lives up to the pixellated perfection of what the web has to offer. So much so, that Jon will leave his real-life catch of the night in a state of post-coital slumber to sneak out of bed for a quick rendezvous with his laptop ladies.
All this changes when, on a routine night out with his wingmen, Jon espies the voluptuous Barbara. She's a "dime", a maximum score out of 10, and Jon pounces. But Barbara, played with delicious sassiness by Scarlett Johansson, is no easy catch and will take time to reel in.
Jon stalks his prey and, with the exception of a hilariously over-the-top clinch outside Barbara's front door one night, he shelves his urgent carnal mandate and exhibits grace and patience. They introduce each other to their families and Jon's mother decides Barbara is The One.
In due course they fall into bed, but Barbara is merely waiting to see if Jon is worthy of her time. Jon still has not told his lover about his secret obsession and this, along with her suggestion that he attend night school, is what moves the story to the next level.
Gordon-Levitt does a promising job as director and uses his reputation to bring in a few celebrity cameos that add to the fun. The overall effect is a little garish, loud and simplistic, but it's his first movie and he follows the comedic tropes of situational repetition to good effect, while the shamelessly stereotypical Italian-American family works well. Tony Danza from the late 70s-early 80s TV series Taxi is particularly memorable as Jon's dad.
A lot of people want Gordon-Levitt to succeed and that's a good thing: he is a likeable talent with ambition and he's just come off Looper, the biggest hit of his acting career. Don Jon's Addiction is a fun, occasionally flabby romp that should find its audience.
EB
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