Napolean Dynamite/Knocked Up Hybrid That Fails To Be Either

Rating: 2/10 (4 March 2017)

I watched "Juno" with a younger (teenaged) sibling hoping that it would provide a good mix of comedy and drama. While the film strives to do just that, it fails to truly define itself in any genre.
For a basic plot summary, the movie focuses on Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page), a 16-year old girl who has sex with fellow student/friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) and ends up pregnant. Because Juno does not want to terminate the pregnancy, she seeks out a potential adoptive family in Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) & Mark (Jason Bateman) Loring. Things seem to be going about as well as can be expected for such a tricky situation...at least until the end of the pregnancy approaches.
Here is the major problem I had with Juno (and hence the one-star rating): It's almost as if the filmmakers said "lets combine 'Knocked Up' & 'Napolean Dynamite' into one movie". A decent idea, but it fails pretty miserably here. It isn't nearly as funny as Napoleon Dynamite, and it doesn't come close to Knocked Up in heart. Simply put, the comedy isn't funny enough to sustain itself, while the drama isn't on par with other films of the same ilk.
Another issue? I think that Ellen Page's portrayal of Juno is either hit or miss...no middle ground. I thought her character was annoying and just plain stupid for most of the film, which made the ending (which I will not ruin here) seem almost farcical to me. To me, Juno was one of the most poorly written characters I've ever seen on screen. I didn't empathize with her a single time, which obviously needs to happen if one is to enjoy the experience. The teenager I watched it with? She could have booted up the film again right away, so go figure. Maybe being a teen is needed to "get" Juno's character.
Thus, to me, "Juno" was a film that didn't make any emotional connections with me in the slightest. Right away, I felt like it was almost blatantly ripping off Napolean Dynamite (which isn't a great film in its own right, but at least some of its humor is timeless), while at the same time trying to cover a very serious topic. Had they done one or the other, I think I would have liked the film a lot more. As it stands, I view it as a rather convoluted mess.