Massively overrated.

Rating: 9/10 (5 January 2008)

Juno is a very cute film about witty little high-schooler Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) and her unplanned pregnancy after losing her virginity along with the awkward Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). While being very cute for the most part, having one of my favorite endings ever, some pretty good performances (and one phenomenal one) and some absolutely hilarious scenes the film managed to be a massive disappointment for me. The dialogue, while sometimes hilarious, was mostly painfully annoying and so "look at me I'm tres hip" that it almost made me choke on my vomit. Even the plot was horribly contrived at it's core. Obviously Juno is educated well beyond her years, but she doesn't have the intelligence to use a condom, be on birth control or even have Paulie pull out? Fu*king please. Almost as jaw-droppingly outrageous is the fact that she's completely set on getting an abortion until some little Asian classmate tells her that her baby has fingernails and when she gets into the clinic she notices that everybody has fingernails and decides to keep it. On what planet does that happen? It's certainly not Earth. Must be Diablo Cody Land, which is a place I'd never like to visit. I'd read that the film was relatable and realistic to lives of teens. Whoever says that clearly has no idea what the average teen life is, or is just dropping too much acid to have any clue what they're talking about.
It also happens to drag pretty badly from time to time and has an insanely unbelievable subplot of romantic tension between Juno and the planned-adoptive father of her future child (Jason Bateman). Grimace. Of course those are really the only gripes I have with the film, though they do happen to be semi-major ones. It was pretty funny from time to time, had an unbelievably wicked soundtrack and some of the dialogue was top-notch. The performances were also pretty good. Michael Cera and Jason Bateman were both well-above average. J.K. Simmons was quite good for the small time that he was on screen. A big letdown, however, was Jennifer Garner as the adoptive mother. She wasn't bad, per say, but the fact that people have been talking about her performance as award-worthy is completely absurd. Nothing remotely above average. The star of the film though, the cute little Ellen Page, was phenomenal. In what could have been a very one-note performance she added a massive amount of depth and absorption into her character. Just like last year in Hard Candy, she floored me with her flawless portrayal.