Rating of
4/4
"Jou Know" you're in for a good flick
goodfellamike - wrote on 10/26/08
There is a certain awkwardness inspired by the title character of director Jason Reitman's latest homespun comedy that has never quite been captured as perfectly in films until now. She may seem like a character, but by the end of the film, you will feel you have known her all your life.
Juno McGuff (Ellen Page) is a teenager who doesn't quite know what kind of a girl she is, indeed, yet (as most teenagers do) she tries to act more mature than her age while at the same time understanding more than most her age. Juno is a comedy about an unscheduled pregnancy and the hard, fast decisions the young mother must make to move on with her life. She has the kind of understanding, realistic parents (JK Simmons and Allison Janney) that are all but extinct in comedies of this nature, a down-to-earth sort-of boyfriend (Michael Cera), a supportive best friend (Olivia Thirlby), and the kind of world-weary wisdom that stems from a life of observing things with a cynical sense of humor. She quickly spurns the idea of abortion and decides to give her baby to adoptive parents Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) who have put an ad in the newspaper for such a thing. During the course of Juno's pregnancy, decisions are forced to be reckoned with, people change, lives are interrupted and the only remaining constant is that Juno’s stomach keeps getting bigger.
Screenwriter Diablo Cody has crafted a heartwarming, believable and often eccentric comedy of growing older a little sooner than expected. It's a wonderful little movie that benefits from solid acting, creative writing and skilled direction. It's not often that a film sneaks up on you the way Juno does, with its ultra-hip dialogue, realistic and full-bodied characters and perhaps unpredictable endings for its characters. It's hard to praise a film without giving away crucial details, which are best left for the film itself to divulge, but it's even harder to create a movie that deals with such taboo subjects as teenage sex that the audience can identify and even sympathize with. This isn't a film that deals so easily with things, but instead plays out as life would, which often creates unforseable events. That's not to say it doesn't afford a lot of humor, and not the kind of pratfall humor that other films often rely upon. This is a good-natured, tender portrait of regular people and the shenanigans that occur through the eyes of a young girl who may not know a lot, but enough to know she is too young to raise a child.
The pacing may be slow, but it's not too slow, and it lets the characters grow on the audience and allows them to become something much more than mere characters. If it feels slow to you, just ask a pregnant woman how quickly 9-months moves along, and you may be forgiving. The acting is superb in every way; particular standouts are Jennifer Garner, JK Simmons and Ellen Page. What more can one ask from a movie that rejuvinates the heart, the mind and the funny bone? If ever there was a movie I wanted to just hug, this is it. FInal Grade: A
