Juno is the story of the unusually-named Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page), a 16 year-old who finds herself pregnant. Automatically choosing an abortion at first, she changes her mind and decides to have the baby and give it away to a deserving couple. Hoping to find some cool artsy types in need of a child, or at least some lesbians, she finds an ad placed by Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark (Jason Bateman) Loring, a yuppie couple in an immaculate house who are desperate for a baby. Will she give them the baby? Will she get back with its father? Will her parents forgive her?
I’m making this film sound like a dreadful issue-of-the-week melodrama, when really it is anything but. An offbeat comedy-drama, the easiest way to describe it would be ‘Enid from Ghost World gets pregnant’, but that would be a flippant oversimplification. Although ostensibly dealing with ‘issues’, the script (the first screenplay by Diablo Cody) offers no universal answers to the problems of the characters; these are people choosing the decisions that are right for them, and not judging anyone else for theirs. Juno is made up of small moments, some hilarious, some heartbreakingly poignant. Cody has an amazing and unusual turn of phrase. Using no ‘jokes’ as such, the film manages to be very funny through the use of some strange expressions and slang; I wish I was capable of talking as creatively as Juno.
Ellen Page, who impressed in Hard Candy, turns in another bravura performance in the title role. Acerbic and independent, Juno is a girl who knows what she wants (most of the time), and doesn’t care what other people think. She comes across as a real person, a person miles away from any high school stereotype. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman put it lovely, nuanced performances as two wounded souls, and Bateman’s fellow Arrested Development alumnus Michael Cerra does his usual ‘nervous geek’ shtick with aplomb as Juno’s almost-boyfriend (I like to hope he has some range as an actor, but I have no evidence of this as yet).
The director, Jason Reitman (son of Ghost Busters’ director, Ivan Reitman) has made a thoughtful and entertaining film that takes the feelings of its characters seriously. Teenagers will enjoy seeing people like them being appreciated as fully-rounded humans with valid emotions, and anyone who likes something a little bit different should enjoy this low-key and unusual story. Juno is the perfect antidote to carbon-copy Hollywood fare.
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