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 attractive 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 reminiscent—in the good way—of Saturday Night Fever that an arm-swinging paint-can reverie wouldn t be out of place.

Accolades

Award	Category	Subject	Result
Bombay International Film Festival	Golden Gateway	Joseph Gordon-Levitt	Nominated
COFCA Award	Breakthrough Film Artist	Brie Larson	2nd place
Chicago Film Critics Association Award	Most Promising Filmmaker	Joseph Gordon-Levitt	Nominated
Denver Film Critics Society Award	Best Comedy Film		Nominated
Georgia Film Critics Association	Breakthrough Award	Brie Larson	Won
Golden Trailer Awards	Don LaFontaine Award for Best Voice Over	Mark Woolen & Associates	Nominated
	Most Original Trailer	J.D. Funari Dylan O Neil Sohini Sengupta Mark Woolen & Associates	Nominated
Gotham Award	Best Actress	Scarlett Johansson	Nominated
IGN Summer Movie Awards	Best Comedy Film		Nominated
Independent Spirit Award	Best First Screenplay	Joseph Gordon-Levitt	Nominated
Jupiter Award	Best International Actor		Nominated
Key Art Award	Best Trailer—Audio/Visual	J.D. Funari Dylan O Neil Sohini Sengupta Mark Woolen & Associates	2nd place
MTV Movie Award	Best Kiss	Scarlett Johansson	Nominated
		Joseph Gordon-Levitt	Nominated
Phoenix Film Critics Society Award	Breakthrough Performance Behind the Camera		Nominated
Prism Awards	Performance in a Feature Film		Nominated
	Feature Film—Mental Health		Nominated

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.

Year	2013
ReleaseDate	2013-09-27
RuntimeMins	90
RuntimeStr	1h 30min
Plot	A New Jersey guy dedicated to his family, friends, and church, develops unrealistic expectations from watching porn and works to find happiness and intimacy with his potential true love.
Awards	Awards, 2 wins & 27 nominations
Directors	Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Writers	Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Stars	Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore
Produced by	Ram Bergman,Nicolas Chartier,Jeff Franks,Bruce Wayne Gillies,Nikos Karamigios,Ryan Kavanaugh,Tucker Tooley
Music by	Nathan Johnson
Cinematography by	Thomas Kloss
Film Editing by	Lauren Zuckerman
Casting By	Venus Kanani,Mary Vernieu
Production Design by	Meghan C. Rogers
Art Direction by	Elizabeth Cummings
Set Decoration by	Cindy Coburn
Costume Design by	Leah Katznelson
Makeup Department	Luisa Abel,Trish Almeida,Jeri Baker,Teddy Blass,Sheryl Blum,Chris Clark,Alan D’Angerio,Deborah La Mia Denaver,Maggie Elliott,Sunday Englis,Laurel Kelly,Elaine L. Offers,Susan Reilly LeHane,Lona Vigi,Jose Zamora,Elena Arroy,Robert Wilson,Kentaro Yano
Production Management	Joe Fineman,Mimi Gillies,Traceigh Scottel,Joseph White
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Thomas Ahern,David Bush,Chelsea Donison,Will Higgins,Nicholas Hiles,Aurore Lance,Brian O’Sullivan,Yori Tondrowski,Karla Strum
Art Department	Luis F. Aguilar,Dustin Dean Davis,Steven DeSantis,Amina Allean Dieye,J. Gregory Evans,Cindy Fain-Vreeland,David Garcia,Christopher Kennedy,Kevin Mahoney,Nicole Scoppa,Nicholas Scott,Alex Sessing,Corey Stram,Jeff Tartaglini,Eric J. Bates,Jeff Clark,James L. Eddy,Kevin Hummel,Jessica McDonald
Sound Department	James Austin,James Baker,Scott Brewer,Danny Caccavo,Joe Cappelletti,David Chrastka,Ryan J. Frias,Graham Gardner,Jason Gaya,John Hays,Allison Howe,Tim Song Jones,Dmitri Makarov,Gary A. Rizzo,Ronald G. Roumas,Lindsay Schnebly,David J. Schwartz,Cathy Shirk,Tony Villaflor,Pawel Wdowczak,Marco Alicea,John Countryman,Daniel Douglass,Danielle Dupre,Patrick Meza,Tom Ryan
Special Effects by	Tim Carter,John C. Hartigan
Visual Effects by	Cyrani Ackerman,Dhanesh Alai,Jeff Atherton,Bijay Awale,Kundan Basnet,Rahul Basnyat,Khandu Bidkar,Christian Burggraf,Gyanon Chitrakar,Ravi Deula,Sudheer Devadiga,Sudarshan Dhakal,Thad Diego,Moritz Eiche,Marijn Eken,Manuel Ferdinand,Bikash Ghaju,Parth Ghatge,Suresh Ghimire,Thomäs Glasser,Jan Glöckner,Jamison Goei,Rishabh Gondane,Björn Gottwald,Karen E. Goulekas,Roopesh Gujar,Ashok Gunjal,Markus Hagemeier,Jasmin Hasel,Daniela Hasenbring,Stefan Ihringer,Mahesh Ingle,Dipesh K.P.,Sandro Kath,Amir Khand,Jan Krupp,Swati Kumbhar,Bill Kunin,Saurav Lama,Jitendra Lonkar,Prabhakar Maharjan,Giorgio Marino,Amit Marshal,Vinod Meghnath,Abhishek More,Sujeen Nepali,Jale Parsons,Corey Price,Amit Pujari,Sushil Rai,Shailesh Repale,Timo Rolle,Mohit Salunke,Vinod Sathe,Michael Scheffler,Franz Schiller,Paul Schlie,Anup Ratna Shakya,Kabir Shilpakar,Krijan Shrestha,Manoj Shrestha,Rameshwor Shrestha,Ravindra Tamhankar,Umesh Tavde,Ganesh Vitekar,Maike Witt,Bjoern Wortmann,Ismat Zaidi,Martin Zwanzger,Marc Herzer,Dane Allan Smith,José Manuel Weil
Camera and Electrical Department	Stuart Allen,Wesley Alley,Tom Anderson,Jason Andrew,Michael Arisohn,Otto Emilio Betancourt,Sarah Brandes,Ray D. Chase,John T. Connor,Justin Corbett,Ross Coscia,Scott Crabbe,Garret Curtis,Nicholas DiBlasio,Evan Dowgin,Colby Dunford,Shun Goldin,John Gozzi,Billy Green,Erin Henning,Alec Jarnagin,Linda Kallerus,Ki Kim,John Lazear,Hannah Levin,Ama MacDonald,Caitlin Machak,Lionel Marks,Josh Markvan,Ryan McCoy,Daniel C. McFadden,James G. Moriarty,Dale Myrand,Vern Nobles Jr.,Ian O’Neill,Steve Peloquin,Marcos Perez,Lauren Petzke,Jaron Presant,Bradley D. Reed,Michael Rha,Amber Rosales,Ari Schwartzman,Kyle Simmons,Brian Smith,Nick Sogard,Phillip Sorenson,Michael Stampler,Dave Steinberg,George Sugar,Rick Taylor,Dan Trauger,Chris Trillo,Winona Wacker,Gary Webster,Michael Weekes,Wade Whitley,Steve Wolfe,Michael Yetter,Ilgar Burdani,Patrick Crowley,Lindsay Rappaport,Manolo Rojas,Henry Tirl,Martin Torner
Animation Department	Eric Digilov
Casting Department	Michelle Beatty,Chris Bustard,Bryn Everett
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Carol Caplan,Amy Habacker,Breanne Hardwick,Jose Herdandez,Amanda Lunt,Erich A. Muller,Rebeca Negrete,Kristen Ochs,Cassiopeia Smith
Editorial Department	Tom Campbell,Wendy Canto,Emily Chiu,Frank Fichera,Gregg Garvin,Patric Kenly,Carter Kerzner,Steve Langius,Dave McCarthy,Jason Modica,Bryan Park,Zara Park,Greg Pastore,Craig Price,Ismael Salas,Mark Smirnoff,Alex Trudeau Viriato,Jorge Zepeda,Thomas Calderon,J.D. Funari,Chris Kirkpatrick,Christopher Rucinski,Ron South
Location Management	Jesse Lorber,Michael McGrail,Michael Shanahan,Rusty Tinder,Peter Wulff
Music Department	Charles M. Barsamian,Greg Beyers,Eli Bishop,Judson Crane,Laura Crane,Michael Daly,Drew DeAscentis,Tara Finegan,Evan M. Flory,Hamilton Hardin,Mark S. Hollingsworth,John Houlihan,Christian Howes,Trevor Jarvis,Nathan Johnson,Laura Katz,Kristin King,Josh Klinghoffer,Ryan Lott,Andrew Madej,Christopher Marion,Jonny Rodgers,Christopher Rucinski,Keir Schmidt,Eric Stephenson,Christian Howes Strings,Michael Wickstrom,Frank Wolf,Andy Ross
Script and Continuity Department	Renetta G. Amador,Leslie Zak
Transportation Department	Jason Ballard,Matthew Ballard,Bruce Blackstone,Anthony Buffalino,Geovani Campos,Guy Graves,Brad Harms,Tony Ingrassellino,Shay Morgan Brook
Additional Crew	Thomas Ahern,Noor Ahmed,Arin Babaian,Andy Bauch,Caleb Brewster,Brianna Brown Wehrle,Brittany Bunyea,Elisabeth Costa de Beauregard,Mikayla Cowley,Christian de Gallegos,Ronnie Deshe,André Devantier,Helga Douglas,Rosamund Dunn,Glenn D. Feig,Luis A. Fernandez,Rico Ferrar,Rueben Flores,Dan Gargiulo,Tom Garry,Amber Grunte,Jennifer Haire,Ryan Hamelin,Kevin Hoiseth,Jon Huot,Tania Isaac,Brandon Itagaki,Marke Johnson,Viv June,Simon ‘Avisari’ Kangas,John Kidde,Vanessa King,Ashley Kravitz,Katie Larsen,Jenn Lee,Casey Leming,Emily Lombardo,Nathan Lucas,Chuck Marshall,David Levy Martin,Steve Martin,Suzanna McKinney,Tamra Mueller,Justin Odell,Stella Pacific,Rafi Pogosyan,Ferdinand Ramml,Joanne Ramos,Jorge Rios,Loreto Rodríguez Modroño,Meagan Rogers,Tiffany Romero,Corrie Rothbart,Rueben Ruelas,Chris Ruiz,Dominic Rustam,Lindsay Schnebly,Lauren Jean Schwartz,Ashley Shewell,John Smart,Amy Smolev,Cat Solen,Will Taylor,Alberto Torres,Kelley Vallette,Conner Verreaux,Cindy Villa,Diane Ward,Caroline Watson,Danielle Wilson,Leslie Zak,Abby Zeltser,Andy Bauch,Tal Fiala,Crystal Franco,Jim Jaffe,Katie Katz,Skylar Mathey,Mega,Shannon Murray,Olia Voronkova
Thanks	Gregg Araki,Michael Bacall,Phil Benson,Emily Blunt,Reid Carolin,Paul Dano,Jenna Dewan,Leonardo DiCaprio,Sally Field,Scott Frank,Evan Goldberg,Meagan Good,Cuba Gooding Jr.,Topher Grace,Erica Gray,Jonathan Greber,Carla Gugino,Sebastian Gutierrez,Lukas Haas,Anne Hathaway,Elden Henson,Kyle Hunter,Rian Johnson,Nathan Kahane,David Koepp,John Krasinski,David Krumholtz,Sean Lennon,Jonathan Levine,Karina Longworth,Josh Lowden,Scott McGehee,Charlotte Moore,Tim Blake Nelson,Christopher Nolan,Larisa Oleynik,Seth Rogen,Mike Sablone,David Siegel,Quentin Tarantino,Channing Tatum,Emma Thomas,Marc Webb,Kate Winslet,Rick Yorn,Warren Zavala
Genres	Comedy, Drama, Romance
Companies	Voltage Pictures, hitRECord, HitRecord Films
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	6.5
ImDbRatingVotes	239779
MetacriticRating	66
Keywords	sex,watching porn,pornography,husband wife relationship,pornography addict