Pleasantly Surprised

Rating: 9/10 (23 April 2008)

Granted, the surface message of the movie may seem a little encouraging to young girls who want to get pregnant but that's only to those who aren't paying attention to the depth of the movie. What many of the reviewers who are grading this as a happy perky movie that is a false representation of real life are missing are the tears that Juno sheds in the end. It's clear to me that she's hurting and despite the happy feeling of the movie, she obviously suffers for her decision throughout the entire pregnancy from not only the trials of being pregnant but from the social standpoint as well. Not every young pregnancy ends up in an abortion or parental misery as so many seem to believe. There are actually kids with supportive parents out there and plans to take care of the child once it's born. It's nice to actually see a movie that focuses on the life of one such teenager versus the usual portrayals. What I really enjoyed were all of the jokes and such about her pregnancy because having kids myself, they hit home. I loved all of the characters, they were believable and warm, all of the actors and actresses did very well bringing them to life on the screen. I felt that the script was believable as well, even making me think of people that I knew. What I didn't like was the music. Egads, the opening song almost forced a twitch out of me and we didn't find out if there was anything special in the credits because I wanted the music off as soon as possible. Besides that, I really enjoyed this movie and will be adding it to my collection.