JUNO
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: B+
Directed by: Jason Reitman
Written By: Diablo Cody
Cast: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Olivia Thirlby, J.K. Simmons, Allison Janney
Screened at: Critics’ DVD, NYC, 11/23/07
Opens: December 5, 2007 The Bush administration is on record that it will not contribute federal funds to programs that advocate any form of birth control except abstinence. Many believe that this is a policy that wears blinders; that kids being kids and hormones acting like hormones, teens will have sex with or without protection. Better they should have it with. Then again, if every teen were fully protected, we’d not have movies as clever as Jason Reitman’s “Juno,” which is not just another high-school movie, certainly not one with the vulgarity of “Superbad” or “Knocked Up.” “Juno” may not be the miracle that some critics make it out to be. Katey Rich of the prestigious Film Journal International calls it “so good that it had me flummoxed…with tremendous heart, a crackling screenplay,” while Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter raves “’Juno’ defies expectations at every turn…witty and articulate…a buoyant comedy.” “Juno” is, in any case, eminently watchable, featuring a title teen played by twenty-year-old Ellen Page (“Hard Candy”), a 16-year-old whom you would alternately cherish if she were your kid and yet find awfully challenging. She’s whip-smart, ready with a comeback at every turn, yet surprisingly vulnerable and eager for affection—graced with a loving and understanding dad (J.K. Simmons), a hip stepmom, Bren (Allison Janney), and a boyfriend, Paulie (Michael Cera) she’s crazy about but who is not quite mature enough to act responsibly at all times. Juno MacGuff, who is named not after the city in Alaska as one man believes but after the wife of Zeus, becomes pregnant after a fling with her pal Paulie. Not at all panicking, she hops over to the abortion clinic as though making a trip to Mickey D’s, changes her mind as if she had preferred Wendy’s, and decides to take the pregnancy to term. Some dads would raise the roof upon hearing the news, but her gentle dad, wondering “I thought you were the kind of girl who knew when to say when,” is answered, “I really don’t know what kind of girl I am.” Spotting an ad for prospective adoptive parents, she lucks out finding wealthy and youthful Mark (Jason Bateman) and Vanessa (Jennifer Garner), who tried without success for five years to have children of their own, but when Juno, having bonded with the newly joyful couple discovers that looks are deceiving, that not all is right with the prospective new parents, her natural sense of optimism is challenged. The acting is spot on, with each performer acting out a distinct personality: J.K. Simmons looks tough but is surprisingly gentle; Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner look like a couple made in heaven but are on the brink of dissolving their marriage; Michael Cera looks like the nerd that has to be fixed up for the senior prom but his very difference is what attracts the title character; Ellen Page mirrors the bubbly person who is the opposite of pretension. Much of the credit for the movie’s sparkle comes from Diablo Cody’s sparkling script. She gives the folks in this story wit and irony that they wish they had in real life, quickness that allows them to make project their personalities spontaneously without fear of invoking a smidgen of hostility. “Juno” is a charmer. Rated PG-13. 95 minutes. © 2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Onli
Edited 11/27/07 by harveykarten | 
