Jon (Joseph Gordon Levitt) loves his church, his family, his gym, his ‘entourage’ and his simple life of local lays and porn sites. What more does Jon need? Until Barbara (Scarlett Johansson) frequents the same nightclub and the rest is history. She’s the one who holds out until Jon falls in love, and soon, his father (Tony Danza) wants him to marry the girl. Jon’s life begins to turn domestic and he even finds himself picking out curtain rods.
Then Jon and Barbara get into a tiff about porn vs romantic comedies, and he raises a good point. Barbara watches sweeping romances and princes on white horses, so why can’t he watch stallions in bed? And besides, he’s got sex – the missionary 101 – down to a science. Don Jon is literally every mother’s nightmare.
But when Esther (Julianne Moore) shows up in his evening class at the local college, her heartfelt approach and sad eyes eventually force him to stop and listen. And she’s got something to say that’s different then the women he’s used to. This is when the film becomes an altogether different movie, as Moore humanizes him, steals his mojo, and suddenly “The Kid is Allright” but the movie is not.
Gordon Levitt is confident and courageous to write, direct and star in a film that takes his usual highbrow performances to channeling the Jersey Shore but it works on showing his range. That said, once the high octane laughs are robbed from the plot, the movie fizzles into almost another movie.