Pleasing, if lightweight

Rating: 8/10 (14 May 2008)

One for comic fans - Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), J Jonah Jameson (JK Simmons) and Electra (Jennifer Garner) all in the same movie! Juno is a smart-mouthed 16-year old. Not so smart, though, that it isn't a bit of a surprise when she finds herself pregnant. By the time she tells Dad and step-Mom she's pregnant, she has already a) discounted having an abortion and b) set up a childless yuppie couple to adopt the baby once it arrives.
I watched this movie in an auditorium where the rest of the audience was teen-aged girls. As a man moving rapidly out of middle age in the wrong direction, this caused some weird moments when they laughed and I didn't, and vice versa. But it's that sort of movie. There are places where the humour is very much the sort of humour which will appeal to other smart-mouthed teenage girls: conversely, there are moments which brought back strong memories of my wife's pregnancies and the births of my kids.
Let me say that there isn't actually very much which happens in Juno. That doesn't matter, though - my attention was held all the way through. And, if the resolution of it all seems somewhat glib, and if there is some question as to the morality in the story - well, I don't have a problem with that, either. Like it or not, teenage pregnancies do occur, and it's better for parents to react constructively rather than recriminatively. It's also unarguable that a child being born in those circumstances is almost certainly better off being adopted than being left to the mercies of a 16-year old couple.
I found the characters in Juno to be engaging and real. There were laugh-out-loud moments, and the film as a whole was sweet and touching. All the cast performed well, but the two standouts were Jennifer Garner as a vulnerable wannabe mother, damaged by her childlessness, and Ellen Page, showing once again how effectively she can command the screen. I enjoyed this movie a great deal.