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Jason Reitman, Juno

by Chris Flippo
12/28/2007

Jason Reitman’s Juno is sweet, funny, and surprisingly perceptive. Every time I thought I had a handle on the film, Juno threw a plot point or a punch line that knocked me to the floor. It’s a film that goes a little bit further than most comedies, and that’s exactly what makes it so endearing.

After a night of experimentation with one of her closest friends, 16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Elle Page) finds herself trapped in an unplanned pregnancy. Young Juno consults her friends and family about what she should do next. Here she gets all sorts of advice, not all of it good. Unsure of herself and the future of her unborn child, Juno decides to give the baby up for adoption.

It is here that the film introduces Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), a seemingly happy couple who have decided to start a family. Over the course of the next nine months, how these three people interact becomes the driving force behind the film. They are characters so sharply drawn that we understand their natures with only a few quick lines of dialogue. Look at the scene in which Vanessa and Mark discuss what color to paint the baby’s bedroom. You won’t find a more heartbreaking scene this year.

Looking back at what I have just written, I realize that this synopsis makes the film seem much more conventional than it actually is. There have been dozens of films about unplanned pregnancy and many more about teenagers. However, what makes Juno special is not the song but rather how it is sung.

Writer Diablo Cody has crafted a screenplay that tells what at first seems to be a simple coming-of-age story. However, she is a smart enough of a writer not to overlook the story’s hidden complexities. Juno challenges and surprises with every scene. I don’t usually say this about comedies, but I had no idea where the script was going. After it had finished, I realized that the ending was both satisfying and fitting. The film really could not have ended any other way.

However, the real standout here is 20-year-old Ellen Page, who infuses Juno with more heart and soul than any other movie character this year. The rest of the cast is filled out nicely with strong supporting roles, but the driving force of the film is always Juno, and Page carries the movie as if it weighed nothing at all. This and last year’s Hard Candy announce Page as a major talent who should have a long career ahead of her.

Juno is a comedy where the development of the characters is always the main focus, and that’s refreshing. It is like a Wes Anderson film had he not abandoned his characters to concentrate on boats and trains. Like many of the best comedies, the film takes no cheap shots. Every punch line has something that it wants to say. This is one of the year’s best comedies.