Juno Gets Better With Time

After a few weeks of letting Juno sink deeper and deeper into my subconscious it has finally hit me. This movie was exceptional. That doesn’t mean I don’t stand by my position of not including it on my top ten list for 2007. All I’m saying is that this movie, just like you’re favorite pair of jeans, gets better with age. In retrospect, it has a lot of heart and really shouldn’t have been categorized as a full blown comedy. It goes much deeper than that.

Juno is about Juno (Ellen Page) a witty 16-year-old girl who gets impregnated by her best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). It holds a few similarities to Knocked Up like its ability to mix serious emotions with solid comedic performances. Both films balance and walk this tight rope perfectly. The comedy doesn’t stand in the way of the complex issues Juno goes through and vice versa. This type of mix seems to be developing into a new trend that started with The 40-Year-Old Virgin and even some episodes from Judd Apatow’s cult TV hit Freaks And Geeks. Where Juno differs from its 2007 counterpart is the type of comedic performance it offers. Juno is strikingly more sarcastic in tone than anyone in Knocked Up and the jokes aren’t quite as sizable.

While I would like to say the true accomplishment of the film is the casting, one key character stopped me from saying so. Juno’s new wave bubbly friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby) was one casting call that just continued to disappoint me throughout the first half of the film. She didn’t play a believable school outcast like her cohorts and her demeanor clashed with Ellen Page a little beyond too much. Besides this misstep, the casting was spot on. J.K. Simmons comes off the bench from Reitman’s Thank You For Smoking but this time plays a much more laid back character as Juno’s father. I suspected going into the film he would offer more scene stealing performances - he came through on that prediction.

After learning of her pregnancy and deciding an abortion isn’t for her, Juno opts to find her babies’ new mom and dad in the penny saver. The main struggle lies with Juno’s choice in adoptive parents who at first seem to be the perfect couple. Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) is obviously a mom who is unable to give birth but has dreamed of having kid for as long as she can remember. Mark (Jason Bateman) is an ex-punk rocker whose heart still lies with music more than anyone knows. Her relationship with each parent differs and leads into an unexpected and at the same time reasonable outcome.

Ellen Page is an obvious standout in her role. Couple this with her 2005 performance in Hard Candy and she is a shoe-in for gobbling up more lead roles in the future. Just as predicted by many bloggers and reviewers prior to its release, it became “the little movie that could” just like Little Miss Sunshine did in 2006. One recommendation is to not have your expectations set too far up. This film isn’t made for the same type of viewer scrutiny as an action packed fantasy like Lord of the Rings. You aren’t going to be saying “wow that was fucking awesome” at any particular part of the picture. Instead it offers you a look into the life of a person that may have sat right next to you during your high school English class.