One of my favourite films of 2007.

Rating: 9/10 (29 January 2008)

Every so often, a little independent film produced on a shoestring budget becomes a critical and box office hit, propelling its star into the spotlight. The most recent example of this would be "Little Miss Sunshine", which eventually secured an Oscar for veteran supporting actor Alan Arkin (with a little help from "Norbit"). "Juno" follows in the footsteps of that film, but it earns considerable marks for being much, much less annoying.
The story is about the title character, Juno, a teenaged girl who gets pregnant after having sex for the first time with her friend Bleeker (Michael Cera, best known for the TV series "Arrested Development" and the hit film "Superbad"), and decides to keep the baby after an abortive visit to an abortion clinic. She picks Vanessa and Mark Loring (Jennifer Garner, from the great TV series "Alias", and Jason Bateman, also from "Arrested Development") as the adoptive family for her child. One of the notable things about "Juno" is that, until the third act, there really isn't much in the way of dramatic conflict; Juno's parents (J. K. Simmons, best known as J. Jonah Jameson in the "Spider-Man" films, and the invaluable Allison Janney of "The West Wing") are unconventionally accepting of this development, and do no become the needlessly confrontational figures so often seen in films like this. When the real drama comes, it involves Juno and the Lorings, particularly the prospective adoptive father.
The performance of actress (and Atlantic Canadian; woot!) Ellen Page has attracted most of the critical attention, including an Oscar nomination for Best Actress that she may very well win. It is indeed an impressive performance, worthy of the award. Also impressive is Jennifer Garner, a favourite actress of mine, who takes a yuppie stereotype and injects it with humanity and vulnerability. The rest of the cast is also strong.
The sole sour note, in my opinion, is the soundtrack, which is composed entirely of annoying indie acoustic music with pretentiously nonsensical lyrics. This is one area where I'd have preferred a more traditional approach.
"Juno" is often grouped with "Waitress" and "Knocked Up" as a trio of 2007 pregnancy comedies where unplanned pregnancies are taken to term; the politics of this has been debated in some circles. In my opinion, "Juno" argues that while abortion should be available, it is a practice that many find unacceptable, even if they are open in principle to it (it also rather prominently mocks pro-life protesters) ("Waitress" I would characterize as more clearly pro-life, at least in the perspective of the main character, although that is also a choice).
Anyway, this is a very enjoyable film, and highly recommended.