“Juno” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Quirky Look At Teen Pregnancy
“Juno” is a movie that came out of nowhere to charm audiences with its quirky tale of teen pregnancy. Ellen Page stars as the title character and she is so winning and believable that you care about this girl from start to finish. The film doesn’t take a moral issue on her situation but rather lets the story play out and then leaves it up to the audience to make its own judgments.
Juno (Page) is a sixteen-year-old girl who after a one time experiment with sex finds she is pregnant. There is never any thought of her marrying her sex partner Bleeker (Michael Cera), and she decides quickly that she doesn’t want to have an abortion. She opts to find a couple to adopt the child.
Her father (J. K. Simmons) and stepmother (Allison Janney) are totally supportive of this idea and her father even accompanies her when she goes to meet with a prospective couple. Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) are well to do yuppies who Juno likes from the start. They seem to have everything necessary to provide for a baby.
One of the biggest charms of the movie is the natural sounding script by Diablo Cody. Juno and her friends talk in a realistic manner about life, love and what have you. The script also has enough twists and turns to keep the audience interested in what is going to happen, and never sure what that will be.
Page is amazing as the irrepressible Juno. She looks the part of a sixteen-year-old and acts believably too. Garner makes an impression as the uptight but desperate for a child Vanessa, while Bateman scores points as the childish Mark.
The movie is rated PG-13 for profanity and sexual situations.
“Juno” is a low key movie that tells its story without frills or embellishments. It lets the humor found in the film come naturally from the situations, and from the dialogue that Cody has created. Page is pitch perfect as Juno while Cera is a little too dorky as Bleeker. The rest of the cast fits their roles and make the movie believable and enjoyable.
I scored “Juno” a pregnant 6 out of 10.
