JUNO [R]
On the page, Juno resembles a Lifetime movie: 16-year old Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) becomes pregnant after impulsive sex with her best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) and decides to bring the baby to term. But she has no plans to keep it; instead she finds a well-tended couple interested in adoption.
It sounds earnest, doesn’t it? Yet this teen comedy is a disarming coming-of-age story, largely due to a perfect conjunction of talents: newbie screenwriter Diablo Cody, whose dialogue get under the skin of the teenage world she depicts; actress Ellen Page in one of those head-turning performances that leads to talk show appearances and award nominations; and director Jason Reitman, who shows breadth in this 180-degree turn from his satirical debut Thank You For Smoking.
As conceived by Cody, Juno (named for Roman Mother Goddess, not, as everyone assumes when hearing the title for the first time, the city in Alaska) is a headstrong wise-ass teenager living in a Minneapolis suburb. She chums with an equally wise-ass close friend, Leah (a very funny Olivia Thirlby); has caring parents (J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney); and a benign, sweet study-buddy and father to-be (Cera). In the film’s quirky universe, derived from Cody’s experiences with a pregnant friend as a teenager, Juno finds her adoptive parents from an ad in the PennySaver. They turn out to be the Lorings – upwardly mobile Yuppies who live in a McMansion and decorate right out of House Beautiful. (They’re played by Jennifer Garner in a lovely, nuanced performance and the equally pro Jason Bateman). Once the plan is hatched, Juno treats the pregnancy like a science project, that is until things began to go awry.
That happens in the film’s third act – Cody shrewdly divides her film in three chapters each corresponding to a season and Juno’s trimesters – but rather than throw the film into a sanctimonious sermonizing, this ending reaffirms her character’s surprisingly adult view of things. Juno’s life lesson is genuine, and tops what could be a glib, treacly comedy with a heartfelt coda. Much has been made of Cody since the film premiered – how she worked as a stripper and turning those experiences into a best-selling memoir; and how she came to write this by picking up the published script for Ghost World, not a bad model to follow for a deadpan teen comedy. She’s already on the short-list for an Oscar this year.
As is Page for her smart, funny performance. She ably suggests that Juno’s know-it-all-attitude is just a facade – beneath the sarcasm and attitude is a young girl groping through an emotional crisis and entering premature adulthood. Just 20, Page is a veteran Canadian actress who came to attention of indie moviegoers as the avenging teen seductress in Hard Candy; Juno fulfills the promise she showed in that film. She gets some great help here: Cody appears to have shaped her script to the contours of Page’s talents, and Reitman directs her with understated simplicity. She also has wonderful rapport with Cera, who brings the same kind of boyish innocence to the film that he brought to Superbad.
What’s also in perfect pitch with Cody’s conception is the music, largely drawn from the band the Moldy Peaches and lead singer Kimya Dawson. They articulate Juno’s sweet, off-kilter attitude with subtlety and wit. And certainly what makes the film such a delight is its near-complete lack of judgment. Juno’s parents – wonderfully played by Simmons and Janney - are smart, working class-types that know enough not to second-guess Juno’s decisions, which would otherwise send the film reeling into After School Special territory. When they speak, you completely understand where Juno gets her sarcasm. “You’re not going to be a Pop-Pop,” Janney tells Simmons. “Someone else is going to find a blessing from Jesus in this garbage dump of a situation.”
Reitman is also smart enough not to ignore the class differences between the MacGuffs and the Lorings. When Juno goes to visit the couple for the first time Reitman punctuates the scene with a montage of cookie-cutter million dollar homes and interiors right of a home design magazine spread, which is neatly contrasts with the clutter in the MacGuff’s home. This like everything in this most enjoyable film is done with just right, understated touch. And when was the last time a comedy did everything right?••• –Robert Nesti
Robert Nesti is the National Arts & Entertainment Editor for EDGE.
Juno opens in Worcester on Christmas Day.