Don't Believe the Rave Reviews

Rating: 4/10 (26 December 2007)

Listen, I love Diablo Cody. I've read her book, watched her on Lettermen, and quite honestly, I would do her upside down.
But "Juno" misses the mark and it's largely Diablo Cody's fault. She simply cannot write dialogue. In this mess-of-a-film, the characters are indistinguishable because they all have the same snappy wit. Sure, the actress who played Juno (Ellen somebody) was absolutely tremendous. What was unclear was why the father--Justin Bateman--abruptly decided to leave his wife. To potentially hook up with Juno, who was somewhat of a younger physical version of his wife? And why was Juno's stepmom in the maternity room when the baby was being retrieved by the adoptive mother? Diablo, please stick to writing snappy, coming-of-age books.