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Don Jon
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Wikipedia article
'Don Jon' is a 2013 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his feature directorial debut. The film stars Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, and Julianne Moore, with Rob Brown, Glenne Headly, Brie Larson, and Tony Danza in supporting roles. The film premiered under its original title 'Don Jon's Addiction' at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2013, and was released in the United States on September 27, 2013. The film grossed $41 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics.
Plot
Jon Martello is a young Italian-American and modern-day Don Juan living and working as a bartender in New Jersey. He enjoys being independent and has a strict regimen of exercise, caring for his apartment and 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle SS, and weekly family dinners. Though he prides himself on his active casual sex life, he is more satisfied by watching and masturbating to hardcore pornography. To atone for his sexual indiscretions, he completes weekly confessions at church.
At a nightclub with his two best friends, Bobby and Danny, Jon becomes enamored with Barbara Sugarman, an beautiful young woman from an affluent background. Despite heavy flirting, she declines his offer for a one-night stand. Finding her on Facebook, he invites her to lunch. There is mutual attraction, but Barbara insists on a long-term courtship and demands he always be honest. Their relationship proceeds over a month and without sex. She encourages Jon to take a nighttime community college class to obtain a career outside the service industry, and he indulges her love for romantic films, which he usually dismisses as fantasy. They meet each other's friends and families, and Jon's parents are immediately smitten by her.
They finally have sex, but Jon is still dissatisfied. He considers her body perfect, but still finds porn more satisfying. Barbara catches him watching porn, but he manages to convince her that it was a joke email sent by a friend. Their relationship resumes, with Jon concealing his habit from her. Esther, a middle-aged classmate Jon previously encountered weeping by herself, catches him watching porn on his cell phone, but he brushes her off. Barbara continues asserting control, insisting that cleaning his own apartment, a task Jon finds satisfying, is not something she is comfortable with him doing. She checks the browser history on Jon's computer and, discovering he is still watching porn, ends their relationship.
Jon returns to his old lifestyle, and his habit develops into porn addiction. Jon and Esther become more acquainted and she gives him an erotic video that she believes has a more healthy depiction of sex. He responds by initiating a sexual encounter in her parked car. She persuades Jon to try masturbating without porn, but he is unable to. They begin having casual sex and she expresses the belief that he enjoys porn more than sex because he has not found a real intimate connection with a romantic partner and focuses on his own satisfaction. They grow closer, and she reveals that her husband and son died in a car accident just fourteen months prior.
Jon tells his family about the breakup with Barbara. While his parents are displeased, his sister Monica is supportive, recognizing she was dating him because she knew she could manipulate him. Jon meets with Barbara and apologizes for lying to her. They discuss her expectations, which he asserts were unattainable, and she tells him to never contact her again.
Although she is considerably older and neither has any interest in getting married, Jon and Esther begin dating, and he realizes their emotional connection allows him to experience truly satisfying sex for the first time in his life.
Cast
* Joseph Gordon-Levitt as 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
* Lindsey Broad as Lauren
* Anne Hathaway as Emily Lombardo
* Channing Tatum as Conner Verreaux
* Meagan Good as Hollywood Actress #2
* Cuba Gooding Jr. as Hollywood Actor #2
* Sarah Dumont as Sequins
* Italia Ricci as Gina
Production
Development for 'Don Jon' began in 2008, when Gordon-Levitt wrote early notes about the film. 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.
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.
Principal photography for 'Don Jon' began in May 2012.
Rating
In the United States, the film was originally certified NC-17, due to some explicit pornography that Jon watches. Gordon-Levitt decided to remove some of the more graphic scenes to qualify for an R rating because he felt the original rating would cause people to think the movie was about pornography.Reception
Box office
'Don Jon' grossed $24.5 million in North America and $16.5 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $41 million.Critical response
Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 80% based on 202 reviews, with a rating average of 6.8/10. The website's critical consensus states: "'Don Jon' proves to be an amiable directing debut for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and a vivacious showcase for his co-star, Scarlett Johansson." Metacritic gives a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore on its opening weekend gave 'Don Jon' an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.'Don Jon' received very positive reviews at the Sundance Film 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 praised Gordon-Levitt for his "assured style" as both director and screenwriter. Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net gave high praise to the screenplay. Consensus of the film when it was played at the Sundance Film Festival, as noted by Odie Henderson, was that 'Don Jon' was a "more fun version" of the 2011 film 'Shame'.
The supporting actresses Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore received praise for their performances. 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 reminiscentin the good wayof 'Saturday Night Fever' that an arm-swinging paint-can reverie wouldn't be out of place."
Accolades
Home media
'Don Jon' was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 31, 2013 (New Year's Eve). By June 2014, over two million copies of the Blu-ray were sold.
References
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