Theatrical Review of Juno

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"Juno" has a problem. In an unbridled fit of teenage love--or horniness--Juno and her best guy pal Paul Beeker have sex and the girl realizes she´s pregnant. When she finds a couple who want to adopt a baby in the local penny saver (yes, the penny saver), she meets Vanessa and Mark, a yuppie couple living in a three car garage home in a swanky suburb. And in the process she might have just found out what it means to be a grown up.

Armed with a stellar cast, a darkly witty script and enough quirk to become a cult classic, "Juno" is a surprise of a movie. Not because we expect anything less with Allison Janney, Michael Cera, J. K. Simmons, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner in the cast, but because the story is as old as time. Teenager gets knocked up, hijinks ensue. This is all angst, almost "The O.C." type drama. But it´s good, which is the surprise.

Starting with the magnificently droll Ellen Page as Juno and Michael Cera as Beeker (in a role much more suited to his talents than "Superbad"), "Juno" slips into two different worlds--blue collar middle class and white collar upper class--to examine the ideas of family. In the moment Juno tells dad Mac (Simmons) and step-mom Bren (Janney) she´s pregnant, we expect a certain reaction based on stereotypes. We expect there to be a big blowup with screaming and yelling and the abortion boogeyman to rear his head. In reality, even though Mac and Bren are disappointed in "Junebug," they decide to support whatever decision she makes. In fact, Bren dives in head first, setting up doctor´s appointments and prenatal vitamins.

Contrast their cozy-alright, small and cramped-home with the palace where Vanessa and Mark live. It´s cold and calculating with its pure white walls, perfect furniture and sense of restriction. That´s a world both versions of Juno (the movie and the character) refuse to fit into. A "normal" girl would try to find good adoptive parents for her child through an agency or some other reputable source, not a local penny saver. The sheer hilarious aspect of that endeavor doesn´t seem to hit anyone in the film, at least not like it hits the audience.

"Juno" would have been just fine doing what it does for half its running time. That is, examine the relationship between Juno and the people in her small town, especially Beeker. While Vanessa and Mark bring in a certain comedic element to the film, they also serve to introduce an unneeded dramatic subplot the film doesn´t need. Even before we properly meet Vanessa, the camera lets us see how she makes sure everything in her home is in its proper place. Rearranging a photo, straightening a power suit, making sure there is no dust on the banisters. This is the world she lives in: neat, orderly, perfect. So when Juno and Mark have a moment together making music (not figurative "music," real music) in a room Vanessa has given him for his stuff--an idea Juno finds ironic--we instantly know the married pair don´t mesh.

And while, a little later, Juno and Mark narrowly avoid a moment the audience dreads, it´s a place the two should never be. There´s no rational reason for Juno to drive an hour to the house just to "hang out." To deliver an ultrasound, sure. But Mark and Vanessa aren´t her moral support; that would be her parents and friends. So in the big dramatic moment near the end of the film, we simply can´t get around to caring about it.. Juno and Beeker come straight from the post-modern, new wave teenager mold made famous by "Dawson´s Creek" in that they´re both more aware-hyper aware, really-of the world around them than they really should be.

In the aforementioned scene with Mark, she´s the one who points out how odd it is Vanessa gives him a room in his own house to do with as he pleases. It´s as if the adult has resigned himself to his lot in life whereas his junior is ready to keep fighting. Juno is so knowledgeable Phucket, Thailand, is a stand in for a curse. I´m sure you can guess which one.

There is a hilarious sequence outside an abortion clinic where Juno runs into a classmate, a Chinese girl with a less-than-masterful grasp of the American language. Her slogans-"No babies like murdering" and "All babies want to get borned"-allow the tension in the potentially heavy handed scene to be diffused for both Juno and the audience. It´s also a powerful anti-abortion message, coupled with the events inside the clinic. I doubt there is any agenda on the part of director Jason Reitman here other than to tell a compelling story.

And that he does. Despite my problems with Mark and Vanessa, Bateman and Garner play their parts as perfectly as they can, exuding upper crust privilege (Garner) and a man trapped in his surroundings (Bateman). We buy Janney and Simmons as Juno´s parents in their small town precisely because they play against type. Who would have thought the gruff J. Jonah Jamison from the "Spider-Man" films could love a daughter in the sensitive way he does here? And Janney is a complete 180 from her most famous role on "The West Wing." Instead of being the power broker, the woman in charge, she´s very much a middle class homemaker who decorates desk lamps with beads for fun. Its inspired casting to say the least. Both actors inhabit their roles wholly, enjoying what they do to the fullest extent possible.

As superb as the big names are, no one is better than Ellen Page as Juno. In one small, diminutive package, she embodies strength and fragility, never quite sure who to let in and who keep at arms length. Throughout the film, she has a steely resolve to do right by her baby and then in the final moments before the credits roll, she is utterly defeated with no energy left. You root for her no because you have to, but because you want to. Every zinger, every barb is timed just right and delivered with the perfect amount of sarcasm to maximize the effect.

"Juno" is generating all sorts of award buzz recently, mostly for Page. She is but one of the terrific performances from the cast--the weak leak being Cera, surprisingly. It rates a 7 out of 10. Not a perfect movie, but a darned good one.

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