Avis des critiques

Whether its characters are jerking it to Pornhub or kneeling at the Ephron altar, Don Jon rejects all screen-based sexual ideals as illusions without value. But in attempting to separate cinematic delusion from real-life substance, the film crafts another problematic fantasy: it fetishizes the notion of meaning itself.

These warm, dialogue-driven scenes show that, while largely playing for laughs, Gordon-Levitt actually has something to say about the complex nature of human relationships. Broad stereotypes and some forced situational humour aside, this is a smart, confident directorial debut that hits the sweet spot more often than not.

The scenes in which Jon "enjoys" Sunday dinner with his family (uber mook Tony Danza,Glenne Headly and, in the movie's only really effective comic performance, Brie Larson) are so broad and patronizing in their depiction of Jersey lumpen proletarianism that they make "Silver Linings Playbook" look as nuanced as "Bicycle Thieves."

The bits never amount to much, and the script fails the movie, but the choices of Johansson, Moore, Danza, Headly and all the way down to the smallest roles are consistently inspired, as if the best possible acting versions of fairly stereotyped characters were found. Good actors know other good actors when they see them, and "Don Jon" is proof of that simple fact.

Versatile actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt turns to writing and directing with this smart, sexy, sweet, and hilarious comedy about the difficulties of forging and sustaining relationships.

To a degree, "Don Jon" echoes an idea that the film theorist Linda Williams advances toward the end of "Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the ‘Frenzy of the Visible'... "Pornography as a genre wants to be about sex," Ms. Williams writes. "On close inspection, however, it always proves to be more about gender." Mr. Gordon-Levitt effectively translates that thesis into funny, eventually touching and dramatic terms in his movie...

SWEET BUT NEVER AS STICKY as its onanistic title character's wadded-up Kleenex, Don Jon proves as winning as its irrepressible writer-director-lead, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This buoyant comedy about Internet-porn addiction, which marks the feature helming debut of the thirty-two-year-old actor, more effectively analyzes the simultaneous appetite for and detachment from sex abetted by the Web thanSteve McQueen's grim, moralistic, high-toned Shame (2011).

Love is confusing enough, and Don Jon makes a novel attempt to reorient a generation that seems to care more about physical gratification than sincere affection. The comedy sometimes packs a punch, and there's ample Italian-American kitsch. But Joseph Gordon-Levitt puts a little too much faith in his masculine charm to put the movie across; so much intense sexual prowess can be exhausting, for the audience.

If the eponymous Jon comes pretty close to being an ethnic stereotype... Gordon-Levitt's such a commanding physical actor, such a master of tone and nuance, that he's always fun to watch. Even the way Jon stomps down the corridors at his gym, or says his Hail Marys and Our Fathers while doing chin-ups, conveys the sense of a man dominated by routines he doesn't understand.

It's a poorly paced film, one as cinematically insecure as its lead character. But the beauty and honesty found in the ending suggests a filmmaker seeking a rhythm. Maybe Gordon-Levitt needed to get this story out of his system before graduating to a more substantial style. One can only hope, because his Don Jon is equally tiresome and appealing, the epitome of a young man lost in his own self-importance.

As a director, Gordon-Levitt is infatuated with breaking the fourth wall for comedic effect with extreme close-ups, overtly stagey lighting, and sub-Pino Donaggio musical cues... His quieter naturalistic moments, such as a verité sequence in Washington Square Park during magic hour, are no more visually remarkable than something you'd see in a credit card commercial, but they still land better than the work of most other stars-turned-writer/directors.

Johansson is marvelous—her Jersey-girl diction is as precise as her character's guided-missile approach to courtship and marriage. And Moore, whose role at first seems thinly sketched, becomes the spirit of the movie: As Esther, she changes the story's course not so much with words or action, but with a vibe. She underplays, as usual, and she's mighty like a rose.