Sixteen Going On Thirty-Six

Rating: 7/10 (10 August 2011)

In Roman mythology, Juno was the Queen of the Gods, and is normally portrayed as a tall, voluptuous woman, hence the adjective "Junoesque". The title of this movie was therefore presumably intended ironically, as the slim, petite Ellen Page, who stars as the title character, is about the least Junoesque actress one could imagine. She not only looks younger then twenty (her actual age at the time the film was made) but even looks younger than sixteen (the supposed age of her character).
The Juno in question is Juno MacGuff, a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl from Minnesota. (At least, the film is ostensibly set in Minnesota, although for financial reasons it was shot in British Columbia, that corner of Canada which is, at least in Hollywood's eyes, forever America). Juno discovers that she is pregnant by a boy named Paulie Bleeker. (Paulie is not quite close enough to be her regular boyfriend, but their relationship is obviously more than just platonic). Juno's initial reaction is to have an abortion, but is persuaded by her pro-life friend Su-Chin to change her mind. Deciding she is too young to care for the child herself, she makes arrangements to have it adopted by a wealthy local couple, Mark and Vanessa Loring. (The film suggests that in America, or at least in the state of Minnesota, adoption is a much more informal process than it would be in Britain. Juno actually finds the Lorings through an ad in the local paper).
At first, the Lorings seem like the ideal adoptive parents, although it soon becomes clear that there may be trouble ahead. The problem is that Mark and Vanessa are in many ways incompatible with one another. She is the ultimate conformist, whose ambition to become the all-American bourgeois housewife and mother has been frustrated only by the fact that she and Mark do not actually have any children. He is a non-conformist, a thirty-something teenage rebel who still hankers after the dream of becoming a rock star and, belatedly, sees the looming prospect of parenthood as a threat to that dream. Although not too much is made of it, there are clear hints in the script that Mark finds himself becoming romantically attracted to the child-woman Juno, something else which suggests he has never really grown up. Another strand in the plot is the progress of the romance between Juno and Paulie.
The film has, paradoxically, been criticised by both the religious right, who objected to what they saw as a glamorisation of teenage motherhood, and by the pro-choice camp regarding its treatment of abortion, although I am not sure that either side really has all that much to complain about. Juno, who is not presented as a particularly glamorous figure, does, after all, make a free choice to give her baby a chance of life, and is not pressured into it. (Her parents would much rather she had an abortion).
The film was the surprise hit of 2007. It was made on the very low budget of $6.5 million and featured only one major star, Jennifer Garner as Vanessa. Yet it earned more than $200 million at the box office, made a star of its leading lady, was highly praised by many critics and was nominated for several Academy Awards, winning a "Best Original Screenplay" Oscar for its oddly-named (or, since that is not her real name, perhaps I should say "oddly-pseudonymmed") scriptwriter Diablo Cody.
The film does indeed have some good qualities. Cody clearly has a talent for writing witty dialogue, and Page has a talent for speaking it. Her ability to put across her lines with a deadpan face reminded me of the young Christina Ricci, to whom Page bears a certain physical likeness. The main problem with the film for me was that Juno always seems just a little too much in control, able to deal with every situation calmly, rationally and to greet every setback with a sardonic wisecrack which would sound better coming from a practised stand-up comedian going through his routine than on the lips of a teenage girl. (Juno to Mark and Vanessa:- "You should've gone to China, you know, 'cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events"). Physically, Juno might look like sixteen going on thirteen; mentally she seems to be sixteen going on thirty-six.
And emotionally she seems to be- well, actually, she doesn't seem to have all that much of an emotional life at all. Certainly not the emotions which one would normally expect a teenage girl to have when confronted with the unwelcome fact of an unplanned pregnancy. "Juno" is in many ways a smart, clever film, but its approach to its subject-matter is a bit too one-dimensional. It exploits the comic side to teenage pregnancy, but does no more than nod to the idea that there might be a more serious side. 7/10