Juno

Review by Mary, from Indiana, on 02-May-2008

Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) is the smart aleck teenager that we all somehow seem to end up living with. She is much more endearing on the big screen than in real life. Juno, written by Diablo Cody, is a comedy about a serious subject – teen pregnancy. Filled with sarcastically funny one-liners, it had me laughing out loud at some points, chuckling quietly at others and at least smiling throughout.
After a not so impulsive decision to have unprotected sex with her friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), Juno discovers that she is pregnant. She is immediately confronted with important decisions that she faces head on. Her short-lived decision to have an abortion ends after she learns that her unborn child has fingernails. When she informs her best friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby) that she has changed her mind, Leah helps her find adoptive parents for the baby in the local PennySaver. That done, she tells her parents Mac (J. K. Simmons) and Bren (Allison Janney) that she is pregnant and giving the baby up for adoption.
In this age of helicopter parenting, Mac and Bren are a breath of fresh air. They are the parents everybody wants but few get. They allow Juno to make her own decisions and then respect and support those decisions. Their reaction to Juno’s news is remarkably calm, “I was hoping she was expelled, or into hard drugs.” Bren ensures that Juno gets the medical care she needs, and demands the respect she deserves. She tells off an x-ray technician who looks down on Juno and her situation, “My five year old daughter could do that and let me tell you, she's not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed.” Mac takes Juno to meet the adoptive parents and discuss the adoption process.
The adoptive parents, Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), live in a subdivision called Glacial Valley Estates, an hour away by car and light years away from the life Juno knows. Their yuppie existence in a large, beautifully decorated McMansion is a far cry from the MacGuff family’s small, crowded home filled with mismatched furniture, knick knacks, family photos and of all things, a hamburger phone. Juno believes she has found the perfect couple to raise the baby. As is usually the case, all is not as it seems, and Juno eventually discovers that, “I never realize how much I like being home unless I've been somewhere really different for a while.”
Directed by Jason Reitman, Juno takes a difficult subject and deals with it sans the drama. There is no weeping or wailing, no yelling, no fighting in Juno. Cody’s writing kept me entertained with witty dialogue and touching scenes. She made me care about this woman/child and the difficulties she was facing. Throughout this movie, Juno is surrounded by friends and family that offer sincere and unconditional love. What more could anyone, including that smart aleck teenager, want?

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