This is one flick that doesn't live up to its overheated hype

Rating: 7/10 (17 January 2008)

I had been thinking of going to the Toronto International Film Festival one of these days, but after reading the following quote: "I don't know when I've heard a standing ovation so long, loud and warm as the one at the Toronto International Film Festival after Jason Reitman's "Juno," which I predict will become quickly beloved when it opens at Christmas time, and wins a best actress nomination for its 20-year-old star, Ellen Page."-Roger Ebert, and after watching the film myself, all I can think is TIFF must be some sort of barely tolerable metrosexual self-adoration festival.
Ellen Page is endearing, and capable of holding your attention, for a time, but she's also annoying, in this role, at least. What you are convinced of is, this young woman shouldn't be experimenting with motherhood. She's way too naive and inexperienced. That's not exactly a hard sell, though. So why should we take an evening to delve into this cliché? I guess the answer is so that we can marvel at this young woman's apparent inner resources and irrepressible good humor. The wallowing is a little too unrewarding for me.
I admit, thinking about it afterward, it is nice to see some of the characters found in this film displayed totally unadorned and unromanticized, but that's not exactly 'entertaining' without some insight or revelation to go with it. Here we get a somewhat plodding tale of a teenager in trouble surrounded by fairly good-natured but fairly boring types. Even Jennifer Garner manages to be somewhat lackluster here, as they no doubt wanted her to be.