Not Something To Really Laugh At

Rating: 6/10 (3 February 2009)

Juno was a good movie at the most but certainly not anything close to a great movie. This movie tries too hard to be witty and cute when in reality it comes off as annoying and unrealistic. For example: If your teenage daughter gets pregnant I doubt you will start cracking jokes about it especially 2 minutes after you hear it. There were a few nice aspects of the film.
The acting of Ellen Page was pretty good and a had a nice warm feeling surrounding her. There was also Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner who came off as the only realistic characters in the film as a married couple about to adopt Juno's soon to be born baby. The rest of the characters (partly because of the writing and acting) in the film who were supposed to be quirky and unusual were just too laid back at the situation at hand. This movie plays itself off a realistic to a tone of that of Little Miss Sunshine yet the characters come off as corny and unaware of the delicate situation that is the central theme of this film.
Despite many of these flaws I do not think there was much of an area the film could have been improved upon. The film's idea was a bit too ambitious in trying to make a comedy out of a teen pregnancy in the way it was. This film has been often compared to Little Miss Sunshine yet there is a reason for why that movie is considered original. Of course it is because of the balance it was able to create between comedy and a realistic drama. Juno tried to do this as well but failed to accomplish simply because the idea of the film simply isn't that funny, at least not in the way this film presented it.