Directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt
(R)
***
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You can tell that fellow actors like working for rookie writer-director Joseph Gordon-Levitt, said David Edelstein in New York magazine. His romantic comedy about an Italian-American Lothario who can’t kick an Internet porn habit is “a broad ethnic comedy” at heart, but “there’s nothing broad about the wicked smart way it’s executed.” Every performer seems intent on giving their peers their very best. In the title role, Gordon-Levitt “nails the swagger of a man who’s both smart and shallow,” said William Goss in Film.com. And when Jon finally runs across a perfect 10 who won’t settle for a one-night stand, Scarlett Johansson turns the tale’s dream girl into a reformer who’s “encouraging and selfish in equal measure.” Even Tony Danza, as Jon’s father, adds real flavor. Still, no one shines more than Julianne Moore, who plays one of Jon’s night-school classmates, said Peter Debruge in Variety. Just when Gordon-Levitt’s screenplay threatens to become too predictable, up pops Moore as the protagonist’s romantic adviser, “using her gift for nuance to spin a small part into the film’s soul.”
