Juno Movie Review

Rating: 10/10 (2 October 2008)

If I were pregnant at 16, I would probably go into a deep depression from all of the shock and my parents would probably kill me and then kick me out of the house. In this dramatic 2007 comedy, 16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) gets impregnated by her best friend, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), after one night with him and a living room chair. After overcoming the initial shock and surprise of the "plus sign", she decides that the best solution for this unexpected pregnancy would be an abortion. However, she changes her mind and decides to have the baby. Since she is only a junior in high school, she decides to give it up for adoption to Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), who she found were looking to adopt through the Pennysaver. Will Juno's sarcasm get her through the four different seasons of the movie  Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer? And will she be able to carry through with the adoption, or change her mind and keep the baby for herself? Although in Juno (PG-13), directed by Jason Reitman, there were many parts of the movie that were believable, there were also many parts that were not believable to the audience. For example, who finds abortion clinic workers who talk about the sex that they have with their boyfriends to the people who come in? Who finds adoptive parents in an ad newspaper? Who finds parents to be so calm and relaxed when they find out their 16-year-old daughter is having a baby? The believability of the plot was just not there. It was simply unrealistic. Even the way that the main characters, especially Juno, talked throughout the movie is not the way that teenagers or people in general talk like today. I have never heard anyone use as much sarcasm as Juno MacGuff. Besides the fact that Juno had an unrealistic spin on a 16-year-old getting pregnant in high school, the movie was still put together quite well. The acting was one of the things that stuck out the most. The actors and actresses were chosen perfectly for their roles in this movie. Page, although she is five years older than the part, represented a 16-year-old tomboy who just got pregnant. She used more than enough sarcasm all throughout the movie, making anything she said, a "laugh out loud" moment. Cera, who is four years older than the part, played a scared and confused boy, who is now the father of a baby. Together with Page, they played the perfect couple since they were complete opposites. Cera did funny things, like putting deodorant on his inner thighs before running, while Page simply said funny things. Although the plot was unrealistic, the acting was believable because they took their lines and made them their own, and because of this, it made the movie not only appealing to teenagers, but also to young adults. Besides the acting being entertaining, the soundtrack was another thing that kept the viewers entertained throughout the movie. The music that was chosen matched perfectly with the sarcasm. The Moldy Peaches played an important part in the soundtrack since their songs comprised most of it. Their music is corny, but it fit with the emotions and with the humor that the movie was trying to portray. One of the major songs that is played a few times in the movie is "Anyone Else But You," one of their hit songs. One of the times this song is played is at the end of the movie in a scene with just Juno and Paulie. This whole scene is full of emotion, and similarly, so is this song. Not only were the songs used as symbols, but there were also symbols hidden among the plot. One of the main symbols was the runners, who always seemed to be running. These runners' symbolized two things  the transition of the seasons from autumn to summer and also "to keep moving on." They were symbolizing to Juno that she should not give up just because she got pregnant; her life was not over and she should "keep moving on." Another part of the movie that made it more appealing to the viewers was the camera angles, as well as the framing and the shots that the director used. One of the most significant things that the director did throughout the movie was the close-up shot. This was used in many of the scenes to show the emotion on the actors and actresses faces, since the movie got more emotional as time progressed through the seasons. Another part of the movie that was very important to the plot was the setting. The setting of Juno most likely occurred in any state in a small town. The importance of the small town being the major setting in the movie is that when Juno got pregnant, the whole town knew and in small towns, everyone knows everyone's business.
Overall, I loved this movie. I would give it a "thumbs up" because of the acting, the aspect of pregnancy awareness and the appeal to teenagers, especially to teenage girls. Although this movie was very entertaining and funny, it was simply a story about life, a story about growing up and the bumps along the way.