Juno? I think you do.

Rating: 9/10 (10 February 2008)

Juno is instantly charming, witty, and just plain a lot of fun to watch. You wouldn't think a movie about teen pregnancy would be much of a hoot, as the topic generally lends itself best to movie-of-the-week weepers and movies with a moral message. Juno has no message, really, other than perhaps "It's okay to be different" and "Love is sometimes found right under your nose." It's not steeped in raunchy behavior; instead, it's sweetly charming, almost daring you to find fault with it.
Juno (Ellen Page) is a self-assured sixteen-year-old junior in high school, and she's just learned - after taking three home pregnancy tests - that she's in the family way. Juno is your slightly atypical caustic, sarcastic teen who takes issue with everything that society offers. To her, being popular is tantamount to being covered in hives. She's into old-school punk rock, not old-school grunge or boy-band music. She's a rebel without a cause, coping with her individuality by virtue of her quick wit and quicker tongue.
Juno knows who the father is - it's wiry Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera of Superbad). The question of whether Paulie and Juno love each other doesn't even come up; even they know enough to know that their relationship isn't at that level.
After some soul searching, Juno decides she wants to have the baby and then give it up for adoption. She and her best friend Leah find an ad in the Pennysaver, which leads Juno to the house of Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), a thirtyish couple that desperately wants to have a baby.
But again, this is no movie of the week. There's no teary confrontation between mother-to-be and mother-wannabe; there's no tone of Great Importance about how adoption would be Right for the unborn child. The situation is what it is, and it's played for tender laughs. Juno herself says that all she wants to do is pop the baby out and hand it over - but we adults in the audience know there's always a chance that when she does give birth, she'll experience remorse and reneg on the deal. We know it might happen, because we've all seen the similar true-life stories.
Juno, though, immediately takes a liking to the couple, so she plows wholeheartedly forward with the deal: she gives birth, and they get the child. Easy peasy.
Supporting Juno in her decisions are her taciturn dad (J. K. Simmons) and stepmom Bren (Allison Janney), both of whom alternate between offering advice and acting exasperated at Juno's latest exploits (in a memorable early scene, Juno recreates the room where the conception took place - outside Paulie's front door). For those of you who know Simmons through his role as Spider-Man's nemesis J. Jonah Jameson, you might be surprised at how tender and loving - although still gruff - Simmons can be. He's a lot like Harry Dean Stanton in Pretty in Pink; he obviously cares very much for his daughter and wants badly to help her, but he's out of his depth as far as pregnancies go.
And at the center of everything is the truly remarkable Ellen Page, a twenty-year-old petite Canadian who wins the audience over with her first appearance. As Juno, Ellen is unique, a girl dancing to the beat of her own different drummer, eschewing the rigid mores of society for a more enlightened, free-spirited outlook on life. Juno is not a delightful, happy-go-lucky girl; she's cynical, arch, and distrustful of popularity. But she's also sweet, honest, and loving, and not just any actress could be shoved into this movie like some cookie-cutter cutie from Central Casting. That's why Page's outstanding performance is such a treasure; she brings out the good and bad in Juno (which, ironically, is one of the "messages" the movie has for us).
Juno is not a low-brow comedy about impending birth. It does not involve a wacky obstetrician, and there are no panicking grandmothers-to-be. The difficulties that Juno faces along her journey to the delivery room are firmly rooted in reality, and they're difficulties that Juno faces with aplomb. There's hardly an insincere note in this delightful gem.