Juno | Review
‘Juno’ is a wonderfully delightful comedy concerning teenage pregnancy. No, the film definitely does not “glamorize” teen pregnancy. What the film does do is show teen pregnancy in a realistic and better sense.
The film is directed by the awesome director of ‘Up in the Air’ and ‘Thank You for Smoking’, Jason Reitman, and written by the witty writer of ‘Jennifer’s Body’, Diablo Cody. Juno MacGuff isn’t a typical 16-year-old pregnant teenager. She’s pretty chill at her discovered pregnancy, and within the first 20 to 30 minutes of the film she figures out what to do with the baby – give it up for adoption. Ellen Page is wonderful at portraying Juno’s chill and clever personality. Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), the guy that got her pregnant, is, well, Michael Cera. Cera’s portrayal of Paaulie Bleeker is like any other character he’s played in other films, but that isn’t a problem at all. I don’t know what it is, but Michael Cera is just too likable for me to care if he seemingly portrays the same character over and over again.
Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman portray the adoptive couple, Vanessa and Mark Loring. They appear happily married and the perfect couple to take in Juno’s future baby, but as the film progresses, we find out that’s not the case. The film portrays real-life situations and Mark and Vanessa’s marriage is just that. We find out they’re not perfect, and there’s an extremely awkward and uncomfortable moment near the end of the film between Mark and another character that may explain why his and Vanessa’s marriage is having problems. Whatever the true reason may be, the film is realistic in showing us that not everything will work out as planned. From pregnancies to marriages, there will always be problems, obstacles, and surprises in store.
There are only two problems that I’ve encountered with ‘Juno.’ The first is Michael Cera’s limited screen time. Before viewing the film I expected Cera’s character to be a major character, perhaps another leading character next to Juno herself. Cera’s character is fine in the film, but my expectations of him playing a larger role (and the fact that he had second-billing) disappointed me. The second is Jennifer Garner’s casting. I do think that Jennifer Garner is charming, but her portrayal of Vanessa just seemed off to me. The same thing may go for Jason Bateman’s character. I feel as though their roles should have been fulfilled by relatively unknown actors. Nevertheless, Batman and Garner did a fine job in their respective roles.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen ‘Juno’, so my review of it isn’t much. I don’t remember the film that well, and I wish I had the chance to at least few it two or three more times before reviewing it, but I haven’t had the chance yet. Still, ‘Juno’ is a charming, funny, and wonderful film with a great director, great writer, and relatively great cast (even the minor roles!).
