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Director: Jason Reitman

Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, Olivia Thirlby

This charming comedy/drama from Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking), won me over right from its animated opening credits. The dialog is cool and contemporary, though a trifle overdone. It tries sooo hard to be cool that it may have over 21 watchers wishing for sub titles, but it’s still damn funny. Young, but already a veteran actress, Ellen Page is magnificent as a confident, quick-witted teen girl, who still reveals subtle flashes of vulnerablibility. This outstanding character, along with Page’s masterful performance form the backbone of the film. She has some laudable back up from J.K. Simmons (Oz & the Spider-mans), and from Michael Cera (Superbad, Arrested Development), but her main support comes from an impressive script by Diablo Cody. Jason Bateman is bland (isn’t he always?), but ok in his role, while Jennifer Garner had little challenge as a simple, one dimensional “I want to be a mommy’ character, but both still do their jobs and help to create a very special motion picture.

Ellen Page is Juno MacGuff, a wise-cracking, mostly level-headed sixteen year old, who finds herself pregnant by her sorta-boyfriend, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), who spends virtually all the film in some God-awful gold shorts, and an assortment of hoodies (which apparently are all from his own closet – hope those shorts aren’t). After some soul-searching, and an unsuccessful visit to an abortion clinic, Juno arrives at the unselfish, but difficult, decision to bear the baby for adoption to a caring home. She chooses the yuppie couple of Vanessa and Mark Loring (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman), to receive her burgeoning bundle of joy, but once the decision is made, she still faces the challenges of a teenager going through a pregnancy, while the Lorings get to know her, and prepare for parenthood. But things don’t go quite as planned.

This refreshing and original motion picture is helped by a cool soundtrack, some really funny lines and a great main character, who reminds me of Darlene from Roseanne, even though she once says she was “out dealing with issues way beyond my maturity level”. Let’s face it, no teenage girl, for as long as there have been teenage girls, has EVER admitted that anything is beyond her maturity level. Has never happened. Not once. Not ever. If ever does happen, I hope CNN covers it, because I want to know. This is a minor issue, however, that I am just using to make my own little joke. Juno is funny, but not silly and really is less of a comedy than it was marketed as, but regardless of whether you consider it to be a drama or a comedy, it is an excellent film that will be remembered longer than any film of 2007

2 Responses to “Juno (2007) *****”

1. skekinag Says:
   January 18th, 2008 at 11:14 pm

   Does anyone know the original author of the “who is the Judge…..” quote?

   Thanks

2. Cajun Carl Says:
   January 19th, 2008 at 3:00 pm

   I have no idea where it came from. The great debaters was the first time i heard it. Thanks for visiting.

   Cajun Carl