Great Script carries the movie

Rating: 9/10 (30 December 2007)

I thought the dialog in Juno was perfect, unlike others critical that it was over-the-top (of course it was!). It was quirky and witty. It is the dialog that makes Juno work and keeps us hanging on. There is no real suspense or action gimmicks in this movie, only the characters and their very real lives and foibles.
I think all good character-driven movies have this quality of fast paced and intriguing discourse, a condensation of how people talk to each other, a "top hits" of one-liners. If it were the bland pablum of most real-life conversations, it would not hold our attention for 90 minutes. The kind of wit in this script may occupy less than 5% of most conversations, but we would not wait for it in a movie. It is the voyeuristic observation of these unique people's lives that keeps us at the character's window.
This movie had been compared to "Little Miss Sunshine" by friends. I did not see the similarities, other than the pre-adult female central character. Although well-written, LMS is completely over-the-top and offbeat, more like a cartoon from Mad Magazine, than a real life drama. Juno is plausible.
I applaud Diablo (Brook Busey) for her excellent writing. From reading a mini-bio on this site, I think she is probably as quirky and refreshing as her character, Juno. The fact that she was a stripper, is a former ad-writer (to which references were likely made with the Jason Bateman character in her movie) and married to someone she met on an internet romance is perfect and fodder for many more great scripts. I am sure Diablo shares a lot of the qualities of Juno, including the quick wit. I am sure she twists quips and colloquialisms in ironic and funny ways in her real life, too. Although, maybe not with the frequency of Juno (no one is THAT clever).
My primary criticism of this movie: I wonder if Diablo knew her script that was set in her (now) home state of Minnesota would be filmed in Vancouver, BC. Anyone from Minnesota saw immediately all the inconsistencies, from mountains in the backgrounds, to rhododendrons in landscapes to the cherry blossoms on trees (in the fall????) and the douglas firs to the huge houses in an expensive neighborhood in St. Cloud???? Didn't quite work for me. They should have just shot the movie in Minnesota. After all, the loonie is worth more than the US dollar these days! In any case, I am looking forward to more work from Diablo Cody and plan to read her book.