Movie Review: "Juno"

There are a hell of a lot of reasons to like Juno which has been receiving great reviews. However it's very likely to be the most overrated movie you see this year.

The movie revolves around the title character, played incredibly well by Ellen Page, a precocious 16 year old who finds herself pregnant after seducing her best friend Paulie Bleeker (Paul Cera). She very quickly decides to keep the baby and after seeing their ad in the Pennysaver lets yuppie couple Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) know the baby is theirs. A lot of people have proclaimed this movie to be pro-choice but it is far from it. Juno makes the decision to keep her baby after sitting in an abortion clinic for all of three minutes and having a snappy conversation with a worker at the front desk (the type of irony and one-liner laden conversations that peppers the script throughout) and looking at the various people around the room with her. The should be important decision is really just a convenient plot device and in no way the coda of the movie.

Among the many things to love about this movie is the performances. Bateman is pitch perfect as the pathetic former high school rocker who now writes jingles for commercials for a living but still wants to be "Curt Cobain". His relationship with Juno makes it easy for him to realize he has absolutely no interest in raising a kid or living in the 'burbs to the disgust of his wife Garner who is the real revelation here. She gives her best performance to date as the controlling but caring wife who wants nothing more than to have a baby to love and raise. She is the one constant in the movie as her relationship with Bateman falls apart.

Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons also deliver scene stealing performances as Juno's completely realistic parents who realize their daughter made a big mistake but support her every step of the way. And finally Michael Cera absolutely nails every scene he is in as the bewildered lovestruck Bleeker. Much credit goes to director Jason Reitman for allowing the actors to play their roles as subdued as they did. Most young directors would have turned these characters into cliches.

The main problem though is that Juno herself amounts to little more than a cliched collection of quick quips and insults for the first two acts of the movie and is really the only character who is not that realistic. First time screenwriter Diablo Cody (who has a great script here but is way too impressed with herself, not a great sin for a debut and something she will hopefully grow out of) has a knack for irony and strong quips and quirk but spends little time developing her lead character (Juno owning a hamburger shaped phone hardly qualifies as character development) and made her far too precocious. There is not a 16 year old girl in North America who would not panic like hell the moment she found out she was pregnant let alone talk to potential adoptive parents the way Juno did in her initial meeting with Mark and Vanessa. I did not find the aforementioned process for deciding to keep the baby the slightest bit truthful.

The movie pulls you back in during the third act however, as Juno starts to come to grips with both her feelings for Paulie as well as the fact that she is actually having a baby. It was a very smart decision by Cody to never allow Juno any doubt about her decision to give up the baby. It showed a level of maturity in her character that was much needed.

Like I said there are a lot of reasons I recommend this movie. The script is witty and for the most part true, the acting is superb by everyone in a key role and the direction is fantastic. And it is damn funny. But if you come out of it thinking that was good, but I was just expecting more, don't say I didn't warn you.

Rating 7.75/10