the surprise is that everybody's surprised

Rating: 6/10 (11 April 2008)

Kids get in trouble. Kids are resilient. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for.
All true. And all unveiled in JUNO as if I didn't know. This movie's primarily interesting for its sociological effect: it caused a bunch of people who should know better to act as if the film revealed some real revelation. The revelations for me are that it's not that big a deal for a 16-year-old to get pregnant, and that such a 16-year-old's blasé attitude about the whole thing deserves some sort of approbation.
It's a pleasant enough little movie, well-made if you like pat Hallmark stories with no surprises and annoying post-hip dialog. Ellen Page is a sweet, sympathetic presence, more or less, in a movie that can't help but cloy most of the time. The supporting cast is fine, the direction is mildly intrusive but ultimately palatable. Which is the problem, for me. I don't need sturm und drang, but somebody might mention once in a while that teen pregnancy is no easily disposable, lightly comic matter.
One example of the script's incoherence - its failure to focus on the big issue - is that Juno is more upset about her ex-boyfriend taking another girl to prom than about her own pregnancy. She spends more time concocting trite euphemisms for her condition than pondering the condition itself in any depthful way. Maybe an impregnated teenager would really act this way; maybe she wouldn't or couldn't deal with the severity of her situation. This I find not unlikely. I can't blame the kid for that; she's just a character. But even the birth itself is treated as a lark, with her BFF dancing around making silly faces at the crowning. Sure, Juno weeps later, but she may just as well be weeping for her own discomfort. So I must blame the filmmakers for a dumb, condescending presentation of her muddle.
Much as I hate to mark myself "curmudgeon," I must come down on the side of those a little appalled at the movie's broad irresponsibility. Yeah, somewhat irresponsible as far as its potentially dangerous message to young girls, but most egregiously slack in its responsibility to keep me entertained.