Jan 21 2008
“Juno” (2007)
Movie Review: Juno
Directed by: Jason Reitman
Screenplay Written By: Diablo Cody
Released (US): December 25, 2007
Christmas day brought a wonderful gift to the art house circuit this season! I’m not sure who’s idea it was to release this gem on JC’s birthday but, it was it was a great and poignant move to do so.
“Juno”, directed by Jason Reitman (who made recent waves with his film “Thank You for Smoking” which I haven’t seen, but want to), and penned by Diablo Cody (this being her first published screenplay, but also made waves with her interesting book: “Candy Girl : A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper”), is the story of a whip smart 16 year old who, despite her best intentions, gets pregnant from her 16 year old best friend. What follows is the trials and tribulations of kids having kids in the 2000’s. A touchy subject for sure, but one that is rarely handled with such snarky tenderness as it is here.
The recently impregnated girl, Juno, played by the outstanding Ellen Page (Hard Candy… see it!) goes through the motions of choosing every option before her. Abortion, raising the child, you name it, but, after getting “the facts” from numerous peers and clinics she decides to have the child.
And, after the baby is born, she’s giving it up for adoption.
That’s the long and the short of it. She finds the “perfect” couple to give her baby to and the rest of the movie follows her through her day to day until she gives birth. It sounds simple right? After-school-special boring and, at worst, maybe a little cliche, but this movie is anything but.
I mean lets be honest, for the real-life kids involved in these situations, it’s earth shattering. To have the best times of your life (up until then anyways) molotov-ed by unplanned, profound adult responsibility, is nothing but boring and this film is completely synced up with that notion. I think all of us can remember the first time we left our parents driveway in the family car without Dad or Mom in the passenger seat. Now, try and imagine that entire situation with a fetus in your belly, or with a child seat in the rearview mirror.
Pretty crazy huh? But real. Really real…
It’d be easy to make a film about this topic that is preachy, demeaning and bathed in hell-fire and brimstone. “Juno” takes a different route though, paying an immense amount of respect to its actors with writing that is as funny as it is heart breaking. You relate to every character in this film in some fashion or another, and behind Reitman’s direction you can’t help but believe that everyone involved truly felt that the movie they were making was something special. Something worth doing and worth people seeing.
There are so many folks that shine here. The film opens and closes with Juno, played by Ellen Page, who is easily one of my favorite actors out there. She’s a scant 20 years old in this film, yet she acts with chops way beyond her years. Seriously, I encourage you to see any film she’s done. She’s that good.
Juno’s boyfriend Paulie Bleeker, played wonderfully awkward by Michael Cera, is perfect as the guy who adores his girlfriend, but has zero idea of what he should do now that she’s pregnant. Cera’s been just awesome in everything I’ve seen him in thus far (loved him this year in “Superbad”, first saw him in the incredible “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”) but I get a little worried that he’s become a one trick pony. Hopefully something is coming up for him that let’s him expand beyond the lovably awkward, skinny geek that he is constantly playing right now.
Juno’s parents, played by the always awesome J.K. Simmons (memorable in the Spidermans, and incredible in the HBO series “OZ”) and Allison Janney (who Mel and I, to this day, still quote from “10 things that I hate about you…”) are note perfect. They strike that balance between being let down by their daughter and her carelessness, but loving her intensely enough to help her through all of this. They’re the touchstones in this film and they deliver the funny as well as the wisdom of the film in perfect doses.
And I’ll be damned if we don’t get some great moments from the family that is getting ready for Juno’s baby and it’s adoption. Played by Jennifer Garner (real proud of her for dumping the A-List mediocrity out there for a good script) and Jason Bateman (who I’ve seen very little of since his turn on “Family Ties” eons ago, but I’ve heard he’s a riot in his recent stuff, and after Juno, I believe it). They both play the part of that couple that was happy before kids, and hoped that children would bring their marriage to the next level (whatever that is). One ended up being incredibly passionate about being a parent where the other got cold feet and was too scared to shatter the other’s dreams.
These could’ve been throw away rolls, but Garner and Bateman add a gravity to the parts and I found myself really feeling for them. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen what happened to them, happen to others in real life. I don’t know, but they came off surprisingly genuine, so I gotta give them kudos.
However, if I had to choose the real heroes of this film, hands down I’d choose Reitman and Cody. Without her writing and his passion to bring the film to life so beautifully, I wouldn’t have given a rat’s ass about any of this. But the film is just filled to the brim with genuine moments and words. And it’s those words and moments that make you accept Juno’s reality.
That huge, careless mistakes can and do happen to good people everywhere, everyday. That we can either hide from those mistakes or try to do best by them. That these “Junos” in our lives are easily forgotten, but often don’t want to be, and that if they could go back and change things, they honestly would.
Seriously, there’s a lot going on in “Juno”s 96 minute running time. When the lights came up, we left the theater with a smile and some heavy thoughts.
Hopefully you will too!
