Juno
I saw Juno last night and I have to say, I was quite pleased with it! I've been excited by the cast of this movie for MONTHS now, literally, but I was worried it wouldn't live up to all the quirky hype. Fortunately I was not disappointed. So it's review time now and I'll put it behind a cut because it's lengthy and spoiler-ish.
The premise of the movie is Juno (Ellen Page), a 16 year old who is both a smartass and convinced of her own hip outsider status, sleeps with her adorably dorky best friend Bleek (Michael Cera) on a whim and gets pregnant. After having a panic attack while trying to "procure a hasty abortion" she flees the clinic and decides to put the baby up for adoption. Juno begins to search through the classified section with her best friend Lea to try and find a couple suitable for adoption. With the help of her best friend Lea Juno picks out Mark (Jason Bateman) and Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) from the paper and meets with them to arrange the adoption. They are at first glance a typical rich yuppie couple, Vanessa being an uptight control freak and Mark being a pseudo-slacker yearning for his former youth. Juno is of course quite taken with Mark and he with her, thus they have an ill-advised flirtation over the course of her pregnancy which ends abruptly when he informs her he's leaving his wife. Juno responds to him by freaking out, begging him not to leave his wife because she can't send her baby into a broken family. Her pleas do nothing of course and ultimately she decides to give Vanessa the baby to raise on her own.
Ok so now that we have the plot squared away let's dive into my opinion. The movie started off on an incredibly irritating note, to be perfectly blunt. The dialogue was ridiculous quirky slang, and while slang can certainly benefit a movie (Clueless, the ultimate example) in this case it was jarring and infuriating. I'm sorry for Rainn Wilson's role as the cashier who sold Juno the pregnancy test, as he was served up the most ludicrous dialogue and I counted down the minutes until he was off the screen. The script was trying far too hard to be a Wes Anderson movie; it took the self-assured precocious style and multiplied it by a hundred until it was grating and distracting. Fortunately, this both evened out and was toned down or we'd have a very different review on our hands. I think the awkward dialogue was trying to show how Juno presented herself. She tried to be this super cool, vaguely snobby kid who used barbs to try and seem more mature. I think it could have been achieved without being nearly as bothersome.
Nonetheless, I think the movie was really great. The acting was fabulous. I knew I'd like Ellen Page because I loved her in Hard Candy and Michael Cera I adore always, so I was prepared for them to dazzle me, particularly as they were painted as the main characters. I was pleasantly surprised though, that all of the other actors (Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Allison Janney, and J.K. Simmons) were not relegated to ironic prop characters to boost the plot, but rather were given depth all on their own. I think that's the difference that kept Juno just from being a quirky little comedy and made it a proper movie. In particular I was just blown away by Jennifer Garner. Now, I love her quite a bit but generally she plays the same character (cheerful normal girl-next-door) even if it's as a spy, or assassin or such. In this case she was the most "normal" character in the film, a pretty straight arrow as usual, but even within those constraints she showed so many facets of her character. She came on the screen as an uptight yuppie and I expected her to end that way, and I was so excited by her resisting that. She, like Juno, used a facade to hide who she really was. In the case of Juno it was a nervous girl worried about her importance to the people in her life. In the case of Vanessa it was a desperation to be a mother, the only thing she wanted to do, and a fear of never getting a chance at it and resigning herself to this front of perfection despite all obstacles.
In the case of Jason Bateman he was excellent in his tragic game with Juno. It was really sad to watch, Juno striving to prove herself as mature but missing out on all the signs, while Mark tried to recapture his youth but failing to realize that what he liked about Juno was her naive outlook and that was why she went along with him. Not because she wanted to help him end his marriage but rather because she was a kid in far over her head.
The movie overall was about Juno realizing that adults screw up just like teenagers, quite a bit more so actually. She got a taste of real decision making and it scared her into being more honest about herself. She figured out that her family is actually kind of awesome, the end of marriage is not the end of family, and it's more important to be with someone who knows you and puts up with your bullshit rather than shares your taste in music.
So yes, the movie was lovely and I recommend it. It was certainly a comedy but also had a lot more going for it. It's worth seeing just for the acting, I really can't say enough about it. I kind of want to see it again just for that. It's great to see an ensemble cast of so many of my favorite actors and see them all really work, just put it all out there and show off how talented they are.
The premise of the movie is Juno (Ellen Page), a 16 year old who is both a smartass and convinced of her own hip outsider status, sleeps with her adorably dorky best friend Bleek (Michael Cera) on a whim and gets pregnant. After having a panic attack while trying to "procure a hasty abortion" she flees the clinic and decides to put the baby up for adoption. Juno begins to search through the classified section with her best friend Lea to try and find a couple suitable for adoption. With the help of her best friend Lea Juno picks out Mark (Jason Bateman) and Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) from the paper and meets with them to arrange the adoption. They are at first glance a typical rich yuppie couple, Vanessa being an uptight control freak and Mark being a pseudo-slacker yearning for his former youth. Juno is of course quite taken with Mark and he with her, thus they have an ill-advised flirtation over the course of her pregnancy which ends abruptly when he informs her he's leaving his wife. Juno responds to him by freaking out, begging him not to leave his wife because she can't send her baby into a broken family. Her pleas do nothing of course and ultimately she decides to give Vanessa the baby to raise on her own.
Ok so now that we have the plot squared away let's dive into my opinion. The movie started off on an incredibly irritating note, to be perfectly blunt. The dialogue was ridiculous quirky slang, and while slang can certainly benefit a movie (Clueless, the ultimate example) in this case it was jarring and infuriating. I'm sorry for Rainn Wilson's role as the cashier who sold Juno the pregnancy test, as he was served up the most ludicrous dialogue and I counted down the minutes until he was off the screen. The script was trying far too hard to be a Wes Anderson movie; it took the self-assured precocious style and multiplied it by a hundred until it was grating and distracting. Fortunately, this both evened out and was toned down or we'd have a very different review on our hands. I think the awkward dialogue was trying to show how Juno presented herself. She tried to be this super cool, vaguely snobby kid who used barbs to try and seem more mature. I think it could have been achieved without being nearly as bothersome.
Nonetheless, I think the movie was really great. The acting was fabulous. I knew I'd like Ellen Page because I loved her in Hard Candy and Michael Cera I adore always, so I was prepared for them to dazzle me, particularly as they were painted as the main characters. I was pleasantly surprised though, that all of the other actors (Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Allison Janney, and J.K. Simmons) were not relegated to ironic prop characters to boost the plot, but rather were given depth all on their own. I think that's the difference that kept Juno just from being a quirky little comedy and made it a proper movie. In particular I was just blown away by Jennifer Garner. Now, I love her quite a bit but generally she plays the same character (cheerful normal girl-next-door) even if it's as a spy, or assassin or such. In this case she was the most "normal" character in the film, a pretty straight arrow as usual, but even within those constraints she showed so many facets of her character. She came on the screen as an uptight yuppie and I expected her to end that way, and I was so excited by her resisting that. She, like Juno, used a facade to hide who she really was. In the case of Juno it was a nervous girl worried about her importance to the people in her life. In the case of Vanessa it was a desperation to be a mother, the only thing she wanted to do, and a fear of never getting a chance at it and resigning herself to this front of perfection despite all obstacles.
In the case of Jason Bateman he was excellent in his tragic game with Juno. It was really sad to watch, Juno striving to prove herself as mature but missing out on all the signs, while Mark tried to recapture his youth but failing to realize that what he liked about Juno was her naive outlook and that was why she went along with him. Not because she wanted to help him end his marriage but rather because she was a kid in far over her head.
The movie overall was about Juno realizing that adults screw up just like teenagers, quite a bit more so actually. She got a taste of real decision making and it scared her into being more honest about herself. She figured out that her family is actually kind of awesome, the end of marriage is not the end of family, and it's more important to be with someone who knows you and puts up with your bullshit rather than shares your taste in music.
So yes, the movie was lovely and I recommend it. It was certainly a comedy but also had a lot more going for it. It's worth seeing just for the acting, I really can't say enough about it. I kind of want to see it again just for that. It's great to see an ensemble cast of so many of my favorite actors and see them all really work, just put it all out there and show off how talented they are.