film: Juno

Meet Juno. She’s the kookiest and most eloquent 16-year-old you’re ever likely to meet. There’s only one problem. She had a bit of the other and now has a baby on the way. Now I don’t know about you, but at sweet 16 I’d go into meltdown at the thought of parenthood. While Juno doesn’t quite embrace the mother thing full on, she doesn’t actually do badly at all. In fact, I feel quite proud of her. Even if she is a fictional character.

She even ponders putting her unborn child up for abortion, put after having a bad experience in the clinic, she opts for adoption instead. Juno thinks she has found the perfect couple in the guise of rich yuppies Mark and Vanessa. Inevitably, everything is not quite as rosy as it seems. After Mark tries to flirt with Juno, this obviously throws a spanner in the works.

I think we’d all agree that teenage life was difficult at the best of times. Personally, I was an adolescent with limited growth in the height department, unlimited width in the stomach department and disappointing growth in the toolkit department.

My love life was singularly disappointing. Discounting a freak incident involving some penny sweets, a fat lass called Charlotte and a romp in the haybales of a local horse riding school, my romantic horizons were a veritable wasteland. Physical deformity aside, part of the problem was that I just didn’t have the lingo, the schmooze, the pow-wow, the verbal gymnastics.

Juno, on the other hand, is just about the most acerbic, witty and gifted talker you’ll ever meet. Infact the film owes it’s power to the lovely Ellen Page. Indeed, everyone in this movie sounds like they have had a script written for them. Which they, have of course, because this is a movie, but you get my drift. While initially this extreme verbosity is amusing, it can slightly get on your proverbial teets.

But the over-writtenness of the dialogue, is – believe it or not – my only real complaint about Juno. The film manages to address some serious issues about teenage pregnancy with the poise of a plate spinner from the Chinese State Circus, balancing comedy and tragedy with showstopping finess. The plot moves along at a tidy pace, and the characters are deliciously drawn. Ellen Page’s Juno is perfectly played – a lass stuck halfway between childhood and womanhood. Superbad’s Michael Cera is in fine awkward laconic form as always as Juno’s boyfriend, but my prize for best actor in this film ultimately goes to Juno’s dry-as-a-desert father played by JK Simmons.

Ultimately Juno is that rarest of owls, an American teen comedy that doesn’t constantly refer to breast jokes or the exchange of bodily fluids. But best of all it has great warmth, and makes you feel that this shitty world we live in might have some redeeming features after all. I enjoyed it immensely and think it deserves 4 of my golden stars.

For the best of the rest:

The Guardian:
A naked Nicole Kidman was once famously described as “pure theatrical Viagra”; in this thoroughly delightful teen comedy, the fully clothed Ellen Page is pure cinematic Prozac. With its smart dialogue by newcomer Diablo Cody and a miraculously effective and evocative lo-fi soundtrack, the film has the ephemeral charm of a great pop song.

View London:
Ellen Page stars as brainy 16-year-old Juno MacGuff, who gets pregnant the first time she has sex with fellow virgin Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). Unable to go through with an abortion, Juno decides to give the baby up for adoption, so she finds childless couple Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) through the want ads.

The Times Online:
Juno is a small, quirky teenage comedy that was all set to become a cult classic like Rushmore – then went and charmed the world. It has ended up with four Academy Award nominations and $100m at the box office, and rising.