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Rating: 3/10 (22 February 2009)

This was a depressing movie. Juno was a sad movie of a plain, eccentric and unpopular teenager living in a middle-class suburb who becomes pregnant. Her friend whom she is impregnated by (it's unclear of the closeness of the interpersonal relationship when she initially inseminated) is a member of the school track team, but he's similarly lower on the adolescent stratification scale at their school. Juno is not a particularly academically achieving student and the prospects of higher learning appear dismal for her. She did demonstrate the propensity to excel at playing a guitar and had somewhat broad knowledge of rock music. But from all observations she had a myriad of flaws.
The movie did depict Juno as making some redeeming decisions, albeit not well thought out. Juno was part of a merged family. Her biological father was a heating-air-conditioning repair man. He was remarried and had an early school age child. His wife was a full-time carer and not working. Therefore it would be fair to assume that should Juno have and raise this baby that it undoubtedly would place a financial strain on this family system. Given this reality Juno showed some responsibility in seeking adoption. She found the perfect couple in the Penny Saver (this should have been some kind of red flag). Once meeting the family she's completely flippant about her pregnancy and cites she would push it out now, but it would probably look like a sea monkey. The upscale yuppies are prepared with an attorney who tried to feel out where Juno was. Juno is hardly concerned about what she is about to sign into. She states that she is not interested with any remuneration or cares to see the child after birth. This theoretically gave the attorney the opportunity to craft a contract whereby the couple could back out for almost any reason (her job is to give the best available options to her clients) and Juno needed to fulfill her part of the bargain as described by the adopting couple. In other words lets say if the unborn child was identified to have any birth defects or if the couple just decided to change their minds, Juno would be left holding the bag (excuse the pun). On the same token after the husband told Juno he was leaving his wife and shattering Juno's concept of her future baby having a pampered and privileged upper-middle lifestyle, Juno wouldn't have any legal ground to stop the adoption even if she wanted to. Juno went forward with a relationship with the husband of the couple. The two had an interest in rock and played the guitar. Although Juno was only seeing their interaction as strictly platonic, the husband appeared to have different ideas. That was demonstrated while they were slow dancing and he softly said he was going to leave his wife. You can take that for whatever it's worth, but to me he was saying I am leaving my wife, would you like to start a different kind of relationship. Juno displays her naivete by expressing sheer shock over what he just said. Again, Juno was not the sharpest knife in the draw.
Another strange aspect about the movie was the relationship between she and her boyfriend. It's unclear exactly how close they were when she became pregnant. Yet, it's demonstrated that the relationship was not characterized by a deep and abiding love. So it is safe to say they were good friends with mutual interests. I found it curious that her presentation of rolling someone's carpet and living room chair and furniture at his front doorstep, then while sitting there with a pipe in her mouth saying she was pregnant didn't garner any significant shock from him. I mean you're 16 and your female buddy tells you that as a result of the experimental, unprotected sex that the two of you had resulted in a pregnancy, it would stand to reason that this would come as devastating news. Yet, he responded as if she had told him that she wasn't taking Trigonometry her senior year. He should have been broken up by such a news bulletin given the fact that this would have demonstrably changed his life. This was a kid from a working to middle-class single parent family. Unlike Juno, he didn't posses an entrepreneurial aspect to his persona. His only extracurricular interest was running 8 miles a day. Babies cost money that he didn't have. At no point did he show any contrition for the decision the two made. As the pregnancy progressed they became closer emotionally. I guess that was some of the more redeeming qualities of the movie.
In closing, this was the saga of a flawed teen with few positive characteristics. The sad thing is that Juno is held up as a wonderful, enigmatic adolescent gaining useful insight on life. Yet, the reality is that she is no role model for any teen