You enjoy it so much that you don't even notice that it is making you think.

Rating: Null/10 (24 February 2008)

.....until you go home and start pondering. In a way, this is an eye opener, although it is likely an unrealistic depiction of what the world is like today. You would want it to be  entirely rational/sensible teenagers, saintly understanding/sympathetic parents (and even step-parents), liberal-minded and tolerant communities.
A 16-year-old getting into sex motivated not just by curiosity but also by true love does not panic at the unexpected pregnancy but deals with it rationally. A brief attempt to "procure a hasty abortion" (her very words, spoken with businesslike calm - imagine the clinic receptionist at the other end of the line) is soon abandoned. The movie makers dare to abandon also the two alternatives that are entirely expected: the protagonist either wails and hails and does something foolish or is moved by a glorified natural parental love instinct and decides to keep and raise the baby (a sentimental choice). Here, we have Juno, cool and rational, assessing the situation logically, and startin to look for a good couple that will give the baby everything he deserves.
Right away, alarms will be raised by some  what happened to the sacrilege of maternal instinct? How can Juno be so heartless as not wanting to see the baby at all, ever? I do not pretend to understand the mind of a 16-year-old today, particular during such a predicament. But I find Juno's act in the movie quite natural and unpretentious. Perhaps at that stage of her life, maternal instinct is all but dormant. She simply did the most logical thing  after ensuring that the baby will have as much a chance to have a good life as she can secure, simply put the whole mistake behind her and get on with her own life. Of course she is concerned. The only time she is ever in tears is when she finds out that this couple is actually getting a divorce which means that she is putting her baby into a single-parent family. But when she becomes confident that the adopted mother is a good one, she again makes a logical decision  to go ahead with the original plan.
The movie is light, unpretentious (I must re-emphasis) and the kind that extracts from you not roars of laughter, but rather smiles and chuckles of appreciation. The cast, aside from Ellen Page who plays Juno, is marvelous  with layers that surprise, delight and trouble you as the movie progresses. Ellen Page is not marvelous. She is perfect.