Juno -- December 30, 2007
****
It is rare that a movie comes along with such humor and delight that you leave the theater with a genuine smile on your face. Juno is easily the best comedy of 2007, and arguably the best comedy in a half-decade. My theater (at a 7pm showing in Boulder) was chock full of people laughing and downright guffawing, so much so that I missed a lot of follow-up lines and comments.
At it's most basic premise Juno is about a 16-year-old teenager (Ellen Page) who gets pregnant unexpectedly. But more instrinsically it's a wry look at family, unconditional love and the burdens of teenage life. The movie gracefully captures a wide range of emotions, dancing around and through issues in some of the most savvy dialogue on screen since Pulp Fiction.
We meet Juno as she is slamming a gallon-size Sunny D orange drink in an attempt to verify her pregnancy test a third time. The positive result is the same as the first two tests and we are placed into Juno's daunting world of decisions and next steps. At least the viewer assumes it will be daunting, and to some extent it is, but the issue is handled with such biting sarcasm and introspection that you realize very quickly that not much is daunting to this teenager. The scene where she informs her parents, played brilliantly by Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons, is amazingly funny and touching in what could have been a thud of weight on the characters and movie.
So how did the director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking) make a movie about teenage pregnancy that is poignant without crossing into an after-school preachy special? The fact that a smart and interesting character like Juno gets pregnant and decides to have the baby is what makes the movie work. Screenwriter Diablo Cody's main character doesn't fit into all of the stereotypes we might have of pregnant teenagers, thus reminding us that there shouldn't be a stereotype. The movie is deceptive at almost every turn.
The father of Juno's child is Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), a quiet, smart, super-geek by most high school popularity standards. Michael Cera has the patent on this type of character, as we've seen him before on the TV show Arrested Development and in the movie Superbad. Paulie Bleeker has a clear affection for Juno, although it's not clear at the start why the spunky Juno has seen fit to hook up with a pasty white, tic-tac eating, nervous, track-star like Bleeker. Even to Juno it seems accidental, but after some tough life lessons that hit home after getting to know the adoptive parents Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman), it becomes more clear why these two found each other.
The movie hits high gear when Juno gets to know Mark and Vanessa, a beautiful, rich and seemingly infertile couple in their mid-30's. Juno has a clear distaste for their sterile mansion in the suburbs but finds a bond with Mark, given his passion for music and horror films. Juno is drawn to their house for repeat visits, despite the fact that they all agreed to a "closed" adoption where they would have limited contact before and after the baby is born.
Mark is clearly searching for and re-living his youth through Juno. And Juno is searching for a more mature and grown-up self with Mark. The scenes between the two of them are some of the most compelling of the film. There is the surface appeal of their parallel connection, but also the deception that each one is judging the other for finding a bond in the other.
Even though Juno is by definition a comedy, the movie provides a much deeper connection than a laugh. It's this connection that helps keep that wide smile on your face as you leave the theater.
