Justin does Juno

“Your eggo is preggo, no doubt about it.”

The Scoop: 2007 PG-13, directed by Jason Reitman and starring Ellen Page, Michael Cera and Jennifer Garner

Tagline: A comedy about growing up… and the bumps along the way.

Summary Capsule: High school girl gets knocked up and… you know, just read the Saved! summary, but minus the Jesus stuff.

Justin’s Rating: A third trimester of belly laughs

Justin’s Review: I think I can safely skip past the whole “reviewing the movie” thang – the only vital information you need to know is that this is a pretty smart, funny and entertaining film that’s not without a few detractors. But since a lot of the focus and critical analysis of Juno seems to boil down to examining the characters themselves, I thought I’d do just that:

Juno: Juno’s one of those Ferris Bueller-type characters that I simultaneously like and dislike, sometimes for the same reasons. I never felt like she was anything approaching a “real” person, but instead a very witty idealization of what writer Diablo Cody imagines herself to be. I don’t have a problem so much with her peppering of hip slang and her inability to talk like normal humans talk in any conversation she’s in, so much as that she’s bordering on a type of smarmy “I’m way cooler than all of you” attitude that almost tips the scales from likable to repulsive. Here’s a movie about a teenage girl who gets accidentally preggers, and for the most part she treats it as an opportunity to whip up some new one-liners. That said, she is constantly entertaining and unique, she has a few moments of true humanity, and – most importantly of all – for all her snappy lingo, her attitude and actions nail a naïveté of a teenager who thinks she knows it all, but she is incredibly clueless about some things. Like how sex might lead to pregnancy. Whodathunkit?

Bleeker: Out of all of the characters, this one stumps me. He’s simply not interesting, nor shows any reason why he’s so deserving of Juno’s constant adoration and attraction. I like Michael Cera a lot, but he goes through this film almost sedated, doesn’t do much to add to the plot, and is just a vague mystery why this is Juno’s dream hunk. Because he runs and eats orange tic-tacs? Please.

Juno’s Parents: They’re… odd, and you can see where Juno gets her offbeat personality from. For the most part they’re pretty loving and supportive of Juno and her womanly issue, although they kind of reminded me of stoned hippies who couldn’t be bothered to rouse from their drug-induced coma to act like real parents. Bren (the step-mom) has a great scene trying to explain to Juno why it’s not appropriate for Juno to be hanging with an older married guy (and here we see Juno’s ignorance shine), and then has another scene where she verbally beats down an ultrasound technician who makes a little aside. That scene I have an issue with, because the technician has a legitimate point – a baby being raised by a single teenage mother is not often stable or ideal – but it comes across as if the technician is being judgmental and Bren leaps all over that. We’re supposed to go “you go girl!” to Bren, and props to her being protective of her step-daughter, but… the situation and response doesn’t quite work, and made me like Bren a little less because of it.

Mark: The way Juno wants you to see the relationship and characters of Mark and Vanessa like a seesaw, with Mark high up with the likability/sympathy at the start of the film and Vanessa way down, then shifting to tilt the other way by the end. Although we find Mark to be initially attractive as a character – laid back, plays music, likes cult films (!) – we eventually discover that he is a man-child who refuses to grow up, sort of hits on Juno, and breaks his marriage because he’s all about his own needs. It’s hard to say “Yay Mark!” at the end of all this, yet I’d argue that Mark isn’t quite the devil the film makes him out to be. If you look at Mark and Vanessa as a couple, another seesaw presents itself: initially it’s high up with stability, strength and support, but the more we learn, the more the film tilts the other way until we finally see that this is a highly mismatched, dysfunctional couple. For all of a self-centered, childish coward that Mark is revealed to be, the blame isn’t 100% on his shoulders – he’s absolutely right when he points out how much Vanessa has boxed his life into just little sections of the house, how her dominant personality is making no effort to be a cooperative partnership. It’s kind of her way or the highway, and I feel for Mark and his need not to be trapped. This isn’t a relationship of similar goals or compromises, but mostly a lie two people tell each other and themselves to not fall apart.

Vanessa: Like I said, initially you don’t like Vanessa too much – she’s anal-compulsive, overly fussy, and a little too unfamiliar with how messy the real world is. But Jennifer Garner absolutely shines in a couple scenes, such as when she gets to feel Juno’s tummy and talk to the baby, and later on as she finds a lot of inner strength to carry on. Still, I’ll put the blame of her marriage failing as much on her as it is on Mark, and that is an underlying tragedy in this film.

If I seem a little too down on these characters, it’s only because they connected with me and made me think a lot about them – hardly a bad thing for movies! I genuinely do like this film, for all its rough edges, and it’s nice to see characters walk on their own path instead of the path of your expectations.

Check out Drew, Kyle and Courtney’s reviews here!