Juno Review
by Jerry Saravia (Faust668 AT msn DOT com)November 29th, 2008
JUNO (2007)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: Four stars
You know you've seen a great film when, after you have finished watching it, you are not sure of what you have just seen. I used to feel that way often but not as much anymore with today's current cinema. "Juno" is something of a masterstroke that will take me days to really think about what I've seen. Usually this requires another viewing to be sure I am not shortchanging the experience or that I am overrating it, but I don't think that is the case here. "Juno" is a brilliant comic and dramatic marvel of a movie, a genuine feel-good movie that is completely unsentimental and yet so heartwarming, so truthful and so winsome that it is one of the few irresistible movies I've seen in the 2000 decade.
Ellen Page plays the most arresting, smartest, disarming, ironic teenager I've seen since Thora Birch in "Ghost World." She is Juno, a 16-year-old high-school girl who speaks in ironic tones and uses language that even the Droogs would have trouble understanding. In the opening scene, she gets a pregnancy test and finds out she is pregnant (the plus sign looked like a division sign). She had sex as an experiment with her best friend, Paulie (Michael Cera), who approaches life with a nonchalant slight ironic tilt of the head - these two deserve each other. Juno considers abortion but hates how the clinic treats her. Then she finds an ad in the Pennysavers with the headline, "Desperately Seeking Spawn," thanks to her other best friend, Leah (Olivia Thirby). Juno has an epiphany and feels she has to give birth and give the child to good parents. They are Mark (Jason Bateman), a commercial jingle writer/Sonic Youth enthusiast with bigger musical aspirations, and Vanessa (Jennifer Garner), who senses her purpose in life is to be a mother. All Juno has to do is give birth, despite complications with school, and tell her parents, Mac (J.K. Simmons) and stepmom Bren (Allison Janney) who would rather hear she was expelled from school than being pregnant.
As written by debuting writer Diablo Cody, "Juno" juggles all kinds of characters in refreshingly simple yet complicated ways. Most refreshing is the lead character, Juno, a smart aleck but not fully, though she is self-aware and doesn't seem to worry about much of anything - she (and Ellen Page) are too wise and mature for their years. Juno can see through people yet is nonjudgmental (especially towards a classmate who holds up an anti-abortion sign in front of the abortion clinic). She can be as witty and sassy as her stepmother, who holds her own with a disapproving assistant during a sonar scan. Juno doesn't hate anyone or necessarily love or hate herself - she is a selfless teenager with her own moral compass (that is even more refreshing than you might think in today's climate) and she doesn't expect everyone to adhere to it. Juno is one of the most unpredictable and articulate characters in modern movies.
Other formidably drawn characters are Mark, the uncertain parent-to-be who would rather rock with a band than with a baby. He also develops an unspoken affection for Juno (they bond over their love for horror movies), as if she was the kind of girl he had been looking for all his life. There is his wife, Vanessa, who is simply looking to love and nurture a baby, more so than Mark, though one gets the feeling they are not meant for each other. And last but certainly not least is Paulie, the kid who is not quite a nerd but not quite a troublemaker - he is the silent partner who loves Juno probably more than he suspects. As played by Michael Cera (whom I admired in TV's cult classic series, "Arrested Development"), he seems smarter than his years, also able to see past people's superficial nature.
Again, I am not sure I can fully encapsulate the high I felt after watching "Juno." This is an odd, spectacularly funny and very charming film about grown-ups who express their feelings by intuition, or at least when they feel it is right. Sometimes a nod or a smile says more than actual dialogue and writer Cody and director Jason Reitman (who is on his own high after having a smashing debut with "Thank You For Smoking") have fully realized their material. You'll notice that I said this film is about grown-ups, despite being mostly about teenagers. Juno is all grown-up before she grows up. Now that's maturity.
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