90 minutes with some good people

Rating: 7/10 (21 January 2008)

Despite her wishes it wasn't so, Juno finds herself pregnant as the result of her one night stand with her best friend. At first she thinks she'll have an abortion, however she changes her mind and decides to put the baby up for adoption. As time passes she tries to deal with her family, her friends and the perspective parents for her baby.
Smart, funny, touching film that is actually almost as good as some reviewers would have you believe. The excellent cast lead by Ellen Page as Juno is a perfect match for the material.(Page's Juno is one of the great women of the screen and possibly second to Nora Charles as the ideal woman for me) Everyone is pretty note perfect. (I could actually argue that this film as as close to perfect in construction as one is likely to get.) The film's dialog is filled with endlessly quotable one liners. I'm certain that this is going to be one of those movies that people end up memorizing for the great lines. My problems with the film relate to the "wittiness" of the script. The dialog at times is almost too perfect and too polished, as many people have pointed out no one speaks that smartly that frequently. Others have pointed out that this is only a movie and not really real. I find myself on the fence, enjoying the lines, but at the same time bothered by the perfection of it all. I know its a movie but for a film that weaves such a potent spell of reality, the too good to be true nature does put cracks in the bubble. The smart lines do calm in the second half and they are less noticeable on a second viewing where the film can truly be seen for what it is and not what it seems to be or has been held out to be. For me, seeing the film a second time made the one liners just part of the film, though there seeming endlessness did slightly diminish things.
Still despite it all, despite an improving on a second viewing I still don't LOVE the film. I like it a great deal. I don't know if its one of the best films of the year, but it is one of the friendliest.
7.5 out of 10 (7 out of ten for IMDb purposes). Its 90 odd minutes with some good people.