I Fell Hard for "Juno"

Rating: 9/10 (17 December 2007)

"Juno" is this year's "Little Miss Sunshine," a tiny film with a gigantic heart.
Ellen Page plays Juno (NOT like the city in Alaska, as she makes very clear at one point), a sixteen year old who acts tougher and older than she really feels and who finds herself pregnant after one experimental romp in an easy chair with her best buddy, Paul Bleeker (the terrific Michael Sera). She decides to give the baby to a thirty-ish yuppie couple (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) living in a sprawling McMansion who haven't been able to have a child of their own. The rest is a sweet, very funny and refreshingly unpredictable comedy about what it means to grow up.
There are dilemmas in "Juno," but they may not be the dilemmas you're expecting. Diablo Cody has written a sharp screenplay that's fair to all of her characters. It was so nice for once to see a young, married, successful couple portrayed as something other than yuppies from hell, and both Bateman and Garner do wonderful work with their characters. Page is a revelation; this is one of those films that's so self-consciously quirky and in love with its own style that it could have been disastrous if not played just so, but Page nails the main character beautifully. She allows us to see Juno's vulnerability, and that's essential to the film's success. The film, unlike so many others, acknowledges that teenagers aren't equipped to deal with adult problems, and that there's a lot they could learn if they were only receptive to it. I give the film great credit for portraying Juno's parents (J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney) as something other than buffoons or losers. And Simmons and Janney as actors have some of the film's best lines and moments.
Only someone with a heart of stone could leave this film without a lump the size of Alaska in his throat. And, can I just say bravo to the filmmakers for including a terrific opening credits sequence. Am I the only one who's saddened by the fact that movies don't seem to have opening credit sequences anymore?
Grade: A