= 5 stars

Starring Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner
Directed by Jason Reitman

Amazon Link

Synopsis

Juno (Ellen Page), a teen iconoclast, becomes pregnant after a one-night fling with nerdy Bleeker (Michael Cera). Will she keep the baby or give it up for adoption to childless couple Mark (Jason Bateman) and Vanessa (Jennifer Garner)?

The Good

• Strong, endearing, and honest characters.
• Relies on character and situational humor, as opposed to the gross-out visual gags more common in movies today.
• The core actors, most notably Ellen Page, solidly embody their roles, and turn in heart-felt, entertaining performances.
• A neat situation develops near the film’s end, where Juno leaves a note for her baby’s adoptive parents. It’s suddenly unclear if Juno wants to keep the baby or not, which gives the last half hour an additional momentum.

The Bad

• It’s slightly pretentious, especially the gratuitous name dropping jokes that occasionally sound more scripted than spontaneous.

Conclusion

It’s partly a coming of age tale, as Juno moves from a wisecracking, annoyed teen to one facing mature, adult decisions. Thankfully, she’s surprisingly prepared for pregnancy as she thrives on being “different” from other kids. She also has a lot of support from her parents and best friend.

But ultimately, the reactions of the adults around her prove challenging. In particular, I mean the “yuppie” couple, whose relationship surprised me by moving to the forefront later in the film. A lesser movie would limit them to just that one Costco-shopping, McMansion, suburban joke. But when adoptive father Mark gives Juno the Japanese comic book and tells her something a daughter of divorced parents doesn’t want to hear, the film moved from four to five stars for me.

It would be interesting to compare Juno with Knocked Up, a similar film plot-wise, but with a much different take on the repercussions of unplanned pregnancy. I prefer Juno’s angle, although I enjoyed both films.

The quirky Juno reminded me of a Wes Anderson movie, but populated with real, heart felt characters rather than cut out, cartoony ones. It’s a blend that I hope to see more of.

IMDB: Juno
Wikipedia: Juno
Rotten Tomatoes: Juno 93%

Categories: 5 Star Movies, Movies :: Tags: 5 stars, Ellen Page, Jason Reitman, Jennifer Garner, Juno, Michael Cera :: Trackback URL
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