Short and very sweet

Rating: 9/10 (25 December 2007)

Juno - Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) becomes pregnant by her best friend Paulee Bleeker (Michael Cera) and considers letting couple Vanessa and Mark Loring (played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) adopt the child.
Firstoff, this movie's marketing felt like a clever ploy. A limited release almost a month ago? Then a bombardment of trailers giving away about 40% of the movie's best jokes. It was almost in danger of being like that Hercules cartoon for me.
That said, the movie nearly lives up to it's hype. The acting is great, with a very good performance from Ellen Page. She plays the whip smart-except-for-being-a-pregnant-teen Juno. Page handles what could have been a slightly irritating character in the hands of a lesser actress. I enjoyed her commentary about high school and would have liked more. She is incredibly quirky, as is the rest of the cast. To the point where some characters sounded semi-alike at times. We must have stumbled into Napolean Dynamite land a few times. Aside from Jennifer Garner, who largely plays straight-man, there isn't a non-quirky character in the cast. This is all well and good, but occasionally it felt a little surreal. Michael Cera plays the same character he did in Arrested Development and Superbad, but like with Christopher Walken, it's such a great awkwardly funny character that nit-picking seems stupid.
The movie succeeds at both the comedic (and lord are some bits funny) and dramatic bits, but possibly my favorite scene-stealing bit would have to go to Alison Janney as Juno's step-mom for the great ultrasound scene. I also loved JK Simmons as her dad. The shop owner at the beginning of the movie has possibly the greatest bit-part ever.
The movie is short and very sweet. The cutest movie I've seen since Little Miss Sunshine (though I liked that one more), Juno gets an A-