Don Jon Information

Don Jon (formerly titled Don Jon's Addiction) is a 2013 American comedy-drama film written, directed by, and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Produced by Ram Bergman and Nicolas Chartier, it also features Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, and Tony Danza. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2013, and had its wide release on September 27, 2013.

Plot

One night at a bar, Jon sees Barbara Sugarman (Johansson), believing her to be the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He tries to pick her up for a one-night stand, but she does not fall for it. Don Jon decides to try something new and actually pursue her, tracking her down and asking her to lunch. They begin dating and for over a month do not have sex. She gets him to go to college night classes in order to make him quit his current job for something better in her opinion. Barbara is addicted to romantic movies similar to how Jon is addicted to porn, fantasizing about the ideal romance movie relationship. Jon's parents take a liking to her, though Jon becomes unhappy despite being in love with her, and finds himself with no time to spend with his friends. Eventually, the couple have sex, but Jon is left just as unsatisfied as with all other encounters. Barbara catches him watching porn, and he claims it was something his friends sent him and promises never to watch it again. He starts watching porn on his cell phone due to how often she is at his apartment. He also has misgivings when she refuses to let Jon clean his apartment, saying it's not manly, which leads to a large fight in which Jon eventually capitulates. Weeks later, she goes through his internet history and finds he watched porn 46 times in one day, and she leaves him.

During his weekly night class, Jon meets Esther (Moore), a woman who is older than the rest of the class. Throughout their conversations, she explains to Jon that the pornography he watches "isn't real". While cryptic at first, she explains that it portrays an unreal one-sided relationship, which is why he is unsatisfied by the sex he had with Barbara, and that the relationship must be mutual. Jon falls for Esther and the two have a sexual encounter in which he is satisfied for the first time. He learns she was married but that her husband and son died in a car crash 14 months before.

He proudly tells the priest about having stopped watching porn and having just the one sexual encounter, but that this was a true relationship and not a one-night stand. The priest gives him the same prayer penance as always, which angers Jon as he was proud of his personal growth, and the priest refuses to explain his reasoning. When he finally tells his parents about him and Barbara breaking up, his mother is devastated about not having grand-children and his father (Danza) is worried that Jon won't be happy, despite Jon stating he wasn't happy in his relationship with Barbara. In the only time his sister talks during the movie, she tells the family that Jon did the right thing. She says that Barbara didn't care about him and didn't know anything about him, and was just using him to live out her romance movie fantasy. Jon meets with Barbara in order to apologize for lying to her about the pornography. However, her shallowness when she tells him that the man in the relationship is supposed to give up everything for the woman he loves because she's worth it makes him realize there is no future with her. Jon goes to the gym to work out, he decides not to lift weights and instead to play basketball with his friends. The film ends with Jon taking Esther as his girlfriend, and even though neither has any interest in getting married anytime soon, he says this time he truly is in love.

Cast

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jon "Don Jon" Martello, Jr.
• Scarlett Johansson as Barbara Sugarman
• Julianne Moore as Esther
• Tony Danza as Jon Martello, Sr.
• Glenne Headly as Angela Martello
• Brie Larson as Monica Martello
• Rob Brown as Bobby
• Jeremy Luke as Danny
• Paul Ben-Victor as Priest

Anne Hathaway, Channing Tatum, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Meagan Good make cameo appearances as film stars.

Production

Production began in May 2012.

Gordon-Levitt has credited his experience directing short films for hitRecord for teaching him what he needed to know to make Don Jon, and has said that he hopes to make films in a more collaborative way in the future.

Gordon-Levitt wrote early notes for Don Jon in 2008. Rian Johnson gave feedback during the writing process, and reviewed several cuts of the film. Christopher Nolan cautioned against both directing and starring in the film due to the extra challenges it would bring.

Reception

Don Jon received positive reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 81% based on reviews from 49 critics. It has a rating of 65/100 on Metacritic based on reviews from 40 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews.

Don Jon received very positive reviews at the Sundance Festival. Entertainment Weekly managing editor Jess Cagle called the film "one of the best movies I saw at the fest" and wrote, "Funny, touching, smart, and supremely confident, Don Jon is also Gordon-Levitt's feature directorial debut, and it establishes him as one of Hollywood's most exciting new directors." William Goss of Film.com praises Levitt for his "assured style" as both director and screenwriter. Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net gave high praise to the screenplay. Julianne Moore received praise for her performance.

Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice praised the film, writing: "There's no dancing in Gordon-Levitt's writing-directing debut, Don Jon, although the movie is so heavily reminiscent"?in the good way"?of Saturday Night Fever that an arm-swinging paint-can reverie wouldn't be out of place."