Movie Review for Juno (2007)

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Review #603 of 365
Movie Review of Juno (2007) [PG-13] 96 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $12.75
Where Viewed: Starz FilmCenter at the Tivoli, Denver, CO
When Seen: 10 November 2007
Time: 8:30 am
DVD Release Date: 15 April 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer

Soundtrack: Download now from Kimya Dawson - Juno (Music from the Motion Picture) - or - order the CD below

Directed by: Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking)
Written by: Diablo Cody (debut)

Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Ellen Page (X-men: The Last Stand) • Michael Cera (Superbad) • Jennifer Garner (The Kingdom) • Jason Bateman (Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium) • Allison Janney (Hairspray) • J.K. Simmons (Rendition) • Olivia Thirlby (United 93) • Eileen Pedde ("Battlestar Galactica") • Rainn Wilson (The Last Mimzy) • Daniel Clark ("Degrassi: The Next Generation" ) • Darla Vandenbossche (Why Did I Get Married?) • Aman Johal (Bad News Bears)

Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
Click to see photos from the Premiere of Juno
Click to read the spoiler points for Juno
Fans of writer / director Jason Reitman's irreverent, biting, deeply satisfying satirical comedyThank You For Smoking need be prepared for something totally different in Juno. One of the more singular character driven comedies of the year, Juno features actress Ellen Page, most wickedly known in Indie circles as the girl from Hard Candy and to the non-Indie crowd as the trouble-making Kitty Pryde from X-men: The Last Stand--the latter being a far less exemplary example of her talent than the former to be sure, as a high school girl who finds herself positively pregnant after a casual, one-evening encounter with this boy she kind of knew from the track team named Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). In conversations with her very best friend, Leah (Olivia Thirlby), Juno becomes convinced not only to keep the baby, but to find some nice parents for it in the Penny Saver under "Desperately Seeking Spawn" as Leah jokes. Her working class parents, Mac MacGuff (J.K.Simmons) and Bren (Allison Janney) take the news of her pregnancy with subdued shock actually hoping that her big announcement will be she's in hard drugs or something, but not this. The Penny Saver leads Juno to Mark (Jason Bateman) and Vanessa Loring (Jennifer Garner)—a 'happily' married couple that has been trying to conceive a child and then, after numerous failures, trying to adopt a baby for a long time. Upon meeting the couple, Juno feels she's found just the 'perfect' people to take over the responsibility of her baby. The rest of the story deals with Juno's emotional states, strengths and weaknesses, joys and sorrows as she works through the stigma of being an unwed, pregnant, juvenile.

Diablo Cody's screenplay and raw but realistic characters make Juno a smash comedy sure to be a sensation. Mainstream filmgoers won't have seen characters like these. There's no sanitizing, no concern for image, this is just about as real as it comes. In this, her first screenplay no less, she's developed an incredible character to which Ellen Page adapts instantly—one of those "nobody else could have played her" kind of fits. Fortunately, thus is so, because the success of the story and the film in general rests squarely on Juno's hence Ellen Page's shoulders. Ironically, Jason Reitman's touch seems less obvious. Except for a certain 'snarkiness' here and there, he seems to mostly let the organic project grow and eventually blossom. The story certainly does blossom despite some awkward moments, interactions, and one slight trauma. Unfortunately, one thing the story is not, is very deep. It's not the bold political comedy of Thank You For Smoking. In fact, it's relatively simple, made more so by the no-nonsense attitude and personality of Juno. Some people may enjoy the fact that the film avoids getting too deep, sort of letting viewers wonder what might be percolating underneath if people really started to get further into the issue of teen pregnancy in the United States, but other may feel it takes an almost too blasé approach. If it's all this 'easy', why worry about getting pregnant?

… Juno lacks depth and a willingness to address let alone deal with the certain realities of unexpected pregnancies…still, it stands out as a truly fresh and entertaining comedy…
In other words, while it would be very nice and utopian for young pregnant women to always get this type of love and support and easy solutions to unexpected pregnancy, where in the world does this exist? With a polarized nation when it comes to providing this essential and needed support battling over safe choices, rights, and the meaning of life, a lot of people who have faced this very issue may wonder what dream land Diablo Cody comes from to write this. Is this how she would hope the world to be or how she sees it has evolved? Absolutely, if it could always be this way, the USA, at least, would be a far kinder, more progressive, place forcing far fewer young women to have to make desperate choices. Moreover, however, and not to get on too high a moral ground to be sure, but the film waxes meaninglessly as well over the whole notion of unprotected, teenage intercourse. While the intercourse part might be an inescapable reality of human nature, though thoughtful and willful abstinence is supposedly on the rise among teens today, unprotected intercourse need not have been so quickly dispatched as a point of discussion in the film. On the whole, the avoidance of both of these topic even from a comedic perspective weakened the overall worth and impact of the film placing it more into basic comedic category and further away from the meaningful, lasting category.

As for the rest of the cast…Micael Cera, fresh off his role in Superbad already is in serious danger of becoming type-cast before most people know who he is. Another weakness to the film is the marked similarity between this and his Superbad character, so much so that they may as well have been the same character, prompting concern as to the true depth of his acting acumen. Clearly, he's a wonderfully shy and naïve performer, but is that just really who he is? One would be unable to tell from these performances. J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney's roles, however, should give someone in television land a notion that they've got 'droll sitcom' written all over them. Both far more famous for their parts in two of the best television dramas ever, "The West Wing" and "Law & Order", these two were downright hilarious. Meanwhile, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the new parents to be seemed somewhat more distant and wooden in their roles. Perhaps partly because they must build, unlike the rest of the characters in the story, toward something rather uncomfortable and upsetting, their early scenes are too foreboding. The outcome, therefore, is more predictable than it would have otherwise been. Jason Bateman is the main supplier of the Reitmanesque 'snarkiness' in the film--something he's particularly good at. Put another way, the two don't seem to develop much real onscreen chemistry.

Overall, Juno the film lacks depth and a willingness to address let alone deal with the certain realities of unexpected pregnancies in a society that, no matter how Juno's life goes, still stigmatizes and mostly rejects young, unwed, pregnant women. Still, it stands out as a truly fresh and entertaining comedy-- all dialogue humor not situational nor physical, however, it is nowhere nearly as 'brilliant' as Jason Reitman's previous film. It's not a step backward in his career, it's more like a step to the north east.

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Other Projects Featuring Juno (2007)
Cast Members
Ellen Page • Michael Cera • Jennifer Garner
Jason Bateman • Allison Janney • J.K. Simmons
Olivia Thirlby • Eileen Pedde • Rainn Wilson
Daniel Clark • Aman Johal
Director
Jason Reitman
Writer
Diablo Cody
Book
CD Soundtrack
DVD
VHS
Review-lite Juno (2007) [max of 150 words]
Jason Reitman, writer / director of the super satirical and brilliant comedy, Thank You For Smoking, ventures into entirely new territory with Diablo Cody's screenplay, Juno. The perfectly-cast Ellen Page plays the title character as if they were written as one. After a casual and obviously meaningless encounter for basic exploration with a member of the track team named Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), she finds herself pregnant. Solving her 'problem' and dealing with the consequences make up the bulk of the hilarious, but shallow, story. Her parents are 'fine' with this, and the Penny Saver finds her new guardians for her child. Mostly, things seem to work out pretty well despite some minor complications along the way. Unfortunately, the film lacks depth and fails to explore the realities of Juno's situation in today's society rendering the film less meaningful in the end.
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