Rating out of 5 stars:
Director:
Jason Reitman
Producer:
Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich, Russell Smith, Mason Novick
Screenwriter:
Diablo Cody
Stars:
Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, J.K. Simmons,
Allison Janney, Olivia Thirlby
MPAA Rating:
PG-13
Released:
2007
Juno
New on DVD with Mike Lippert
There is a moment, I think, in every great film where something just clicks; a moment of perfection when we stop being a viewer and our emotions become an active participant in the experience. It can be a broad moment, or an indistinguishable one; an actor's gesture, an image in the background, the angle on which something is filmed, or even a song on the soundtrack. For everyone it is different. But it's a moment that the viewer will always be able to pinpoint, because it is the one that gets the dopamine flowing. It's a great film because it has stolen your heart, and for the rest of the running time, you are in its debt.
There's a moment like that in Juno that takes place in a van on the side of the road in which the inescapable pressures of reality have finally washed over the title character and she breaks down into tears. It's a startling moment of revelation that offers us an insight that few films, let alone comedies, give: that the world revolves around an axis that is not our personal life and no matter how hard we try to convince ourselves that everything is okay, the reality of some, maybe most, situations are inescapable. All we can do is deal with them because we play on the universe's terms and not the other way around.
That's why Juno is such a lovable and relatable film: none of its characters are exempt from the universe's strange sense of humour. We live our lives, hope for the best and in spite of it all try to do so with humour. That's the key element at play. Juno is not a comedy so much as a showcase of the human condition, a film that's humour springs not from its own cleverness, but rather from a deeper, more human place. It's a means to cope with a situation that has spiralled beyond human control.
Our hero Juno (the extraordinary Ellen Page) is just a normal, likable sixteen year old girl who has gotten herself into a situation which is beyond what her life has yet equipped her for. She has become pregnant. The charm of the film is that it is not about sex, or even pregnancy, but a gentle reflection about a time of innocence lost, when the naivety of being a teenager slowly transforms itself into the reality of becoming a responsible young adult, and there's nothing that can be done about it.
That's the essence of what makes Juno the wonderful film that it is. Its director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody, create an organic universe for their characters to exist in. They give them room to breathe, and grow and to make decisions on their own. There are no forced moments in Juno, no false notes, no actions or dialogue that don't have secret currents running below the surface that speak volumes about the process of growing up. It creates characters with complexities and layers, both naïve and intelligent, flawed but loveable in spite of it. Therefore, the film begins in joy and humour and ends in moving revelation. Juno's step mom, played by Allison Janney, sits beside her bed in a hospital and says "one day you'll be here on your own terms," and we know by the look in Janney's eyes, by the tone of her voice, and by the way that Juno simply reflects on those simple words, that she is talking about so much more than simply a careless teenaged pregnancy. This film knows so much about human nature that I just wanted to hug it, over and over again.
Think of the way the pregnancy happens and how Juno initially reacts to it. After deciding to experiment sexually with her friend and bandmate Paulie Bleeker (played wonderfully by Michael Cera), like any confused, independent-minded teenager, she denies her affection for him, saying she doesn't really like him, she was just bored. But he, wise boy that he is, thinks otherwise. After all, the Blair Witch Project was on TV that night.
Then there's the matter of what to do. Juno considers abortion, but is dissuaded by the lone protestor picketing outside the clinic, who informs Juno, not that a baby is a gift from God and we have no right to take it, or that it is a human being who has rights like the rest of us, but that it probably has fingernails by now.
With that out of the way, Juno does what she thinks is the responsible thing by finding a couple to adopt the baby after it is born. But she doesn't want just any couple; she wants them to be quirky and fun, basically someone that she herself could look up to. She is thus delighted to find Vanessa and Mark Loring (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman). He's a musician who writes jingles for television ads and she believes that she was put on this Earth to be a mother. Juno instantly wants to strike a deal to have the Lorings adopt the child, and even begins dropping in during the day to watch horror movies and listen to songs with Mark.
What she fails to realize in her naivety though is that they, much like her, also struggle with internal conflicts. Vanessa is so conservative about her desire to have a child that she borders on the obsessive, and Mark, with his musical equipment isolated in one room upstairs and his comic books boxed up in the basement, is caught between his need to provide for his wife and his artistic desire to live the life of a famous rock store. "Vanessa hates in when I sit around and watch movies all day," Mark says, and Cody tells us more about his character in those few lines than most films would dare tell us at all.
Some have complained that the pop culture references in Cody's dialogue become tiring; the film is too hip for its own good. I disagree. Ellen Page is such a good actress that we believe that, not only would a person like Juno naturally speak like that, but that, as a smart and quirky teenager, would want to associate with individuals who are on the same level as her. Also it seems that the dialogue increases the empathy we feel for Juno because it makes us realize that even the quickest witted, most unique, intelligent individual is not disqualified from the struggles of day to day reality. No matter how much one thinks they know about living, or human nature, there are always important lessons to be learned, and sometimes the best way is the hard one. That of course, does not mean we can't at least conduct ourselves with humour and good spirits along the way. Juno encapsulates us in a world of delightfully eccentric and quirky characters, and looks upon them as human beings, going through the motions of life. They live, they love, they learn, and they all grow in one way or another as human beings, and we're glad to be there with them along they way.
There is a moment, I think, in every great film where something just clicks; a moment of perfection when we stop being a viewer and our emotions become an active participant in the experience. It can be a broad moment, or an indistinguishable one; an actor's gesture, an image in the background, the angle on which something is filmed, or even a song on the soundtrack. For everyone it is different. But it's a moment that the viewer will always be able to pinpoint, because it is the one that gets the dopamine flowing. It's a great film because it has stolen your heart, and for the rest of the running time, you are in its debt.
There's a moment like that in Juno that takes place in a van on the side of the road in which the inescapable pressures of reality have finally washed over the title character and she breaks down into tears. It's a startling moment of revelation that offers us an insight that few films, let alone comedies, give: that the world revolves around an axis that is not our personal life and no matter how hard we try to convince ourselves that everything is okay, the reality of some, maybe most, situations are inescapable. All we can do is deal with them because we play on the universe's terms and not the other way around.
That's why Juno is such a lovable and relatable film: none of its characters are exempt from the universe's strange sense of humour. We live our lives, hope for the best and in spite of it all try to do so with humour. That's the key element at play. Juno is not a comedy so much as a showcase of the human condition, a film that's humour springs not from its own cleverness, but rather from a deeper, more human place. It's a means to cope with a situation that has spiralled beyond human control.
Our hero Juno (the extraordinary Ellen Page) is just a normal, likable sixteen year old girl who has gotten herself into a situation which is beyond what her life has yet equipped her for. She has become pregnant. The charm of the film is that it is not about sex, or even pregnancy, but a gentle reflection about a time of innocence lost, when the naivety of being a teenager slowly transforms itself into the reality of becoming a responsible young adult, and there's nothing that can be done about it.
That's the essence of what makes Juno the wonderful film that it is. Its director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody, create an organic universe for their characters to exist in. They give them room to breathe, and grow and to make decisions on their own. There are no forced moments in Juno, no false notes, no actions or dialogue that don't have secret currents running below the surface that speak volumes about the process of growing up. It creates characters with complexities and layers, both naïve and intelligent, flawed but loveable in spite of it. Therefore, the film begins in joy and humour and ends in moving revelation. Juno's step mom, played by Allison Janney, sits beside her bed in a hospital and says "one day you'll be here on your own terms," and we know by the look in Janney's eyes, by the tone of her voice, and by the way that Juno simply reflects on those simple words, that she is talking about so much more than simply a careless teenaged pregnancy. This film knows so much about human nature that I just wanted to hug it, over and over again.
Think of the way the pregnancy happens and how Juno initially reacts to it. After deciding to experiment sexually with her friend and bandmate Paulie Bleeker (played wonderfully by Michael Cera), like any confused, independent-minded teenager, she denies her affection for him, saying she doesn't really like him, she was just bored. But he, wise boy that he is, thinks otherwise. After all, the Blair Witch Project was on TV that night.
Then there's the matter of what to do. Juno considers abortion, but is dissuaded by the lone protestor picketing outside the clinic, who informs Juno, not that a baby is a gift from God and we have no right to take it, or that it is a human being who has rights like the rest of us, but that it probably has fingernails by now.
With that out of the way, Juno does what she thinks is the responsible thing by finding a couple to adopt the baby after it is born. But she doesn't want just any couple; she wants them to be quirky and fun, basically someone that she herself could look up to. She is thus delighted to find Vanessa and Mark Loring (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman). He's a musician who writes jingles for television ads and she believes that she was put on this Earth to be a mother. Juno instantly wants to strike a deal to have the Lorings adopt the child, and even begins dropping in during the day to watch horror movies and listen to songs with Mark.
What she fails to realize in her naivety though is that they, much like her, also struggle with internal conflicts. Vanessa is so conservative about her desire to have a child that she borders on the obsessive, and Mark, with his musical equipment isolated in one room upstairs and his comic books boxed up in the basement, is caught between his need to provide for his wife and his artistic desire to live the life of a famous rock store. "Vanessa hates in when I sit around and watch movies all day," Mark says, and Cody tells us more about his character in those few lines than most films would dare tell us at all.
Some have complained that the pop culture references in Cody's dialogue become tiring; the film is too hip for its own good. I disagree. Ellen Page is such a good actress that we believe that, not only would a person like Juno naturally speak like that, but that, as a smart and quirky teenager, would want to associate with individuals who are on the same level as her. Also it seems that the dialogue increases the empathy we feel for Juno because it makes us realize that even the quickest witted, most unique, intelligent individual is not disqualified from the struggles of day to day reality. No matter how much one thinks they know about living, or human nature, there are always important lessons to be learned, and sometimes the best way is the hard one. That of course, does not mean we can't at least conduct ourselves with humour and good spirits along the way. Juno encapsulates us in a world of delightfully eccentric and quirky characters, and looks upon them as human beings, going through the motions of life. They live, they love, they learn, and they all grow in one way or another as human beings, and we're glad to be there with them along they way.
Copyright © Greg Roberts
