Ellen Page sparkles as the title character in this funny, heartfelt drama.
“It all started with a chair.” So starts the indie hit Juno, deftly directed by Jason Reitman and with a brilliant script by Diablo Cody.
The dramatic comedy has received Oscar nominations this year for Picture, Director, Actress and Original Screenplay. But more importantly, out of a plethora of must-see films this year, this one is actually fun.
The Plot Beneath the Plot
The chair in question is the one upon which Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page), a precocious, whip-smart teen with a mouth like a pistol, jumps her boyfriend Bleeker’s bones, and tosses their virginity to the wind. The drama in question surfaces when Juno discovers she’s pregnant: “That little pink plus sign is so unholy.”
But pregnancy isn’t the biggest drama for Juno, named after the Roman matriarch goddess, wife of the philandering Jupiter. Even as she wrestles with whether to have an abortion (and “nip it in the bud”) or have the baby and give it up for adoption, Juno’s real struggle is to find both genuineness and permanence in love.
Her father, Mac (J.K. Simmons) – divorced from Juno’s mother, who sends her “cactus-grams” every Valentine’s day – is now married to Bren (Allison Janney), obsessed with all things canine. Moreover, Juno can’t seem to rattle Bleeker down to his meek and geeky core. It’s a coming of age movie, about a girl who knows she has both feet on the ground, but isn’t too sure where her heart lies, or what to do about it.
Ellen Page as Indie Goddess-in-training
Ellen Page as Juno is absolutely charming. She’s chock-full of sass and cute, and her off-the-cuff delivery is bound to make her an indie diva for a long little while. This is her movie, but the ensemble performances make the whole work shine.
Michael Cera (Superbad) as Paulie Bleeker is so at home in his awkward sincerity that he seems plucked right off the street. Simmons and Janney are warm and quirky in all the right ways. And Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, as Vanessa and Mark, the baby’s potential adoptive parents, add the depth and scope to round out the drama.
Diablo Cody’s Screenplay
As for Cody’s script, it deserves all the hoopla it’s getting. (Yes, Cody used to be a stripper, by the way, just like many writers used to be waiters; her ex-job sounds like a lot more fun.) Cody walks a fine line between farce and unimpeachable authenticity in painting her characters and their world, but she walks it well. The dialogue sparkles, at times rifled off with rapid-fire glibness, rich and witty enough to bear up under repeated viewings.
To be sure, the plotline is simple, and there are no real earth-shaking realizations. But the film’s affectionate humor and respect for the frailty of humanity put it right there with The Savages (both Fox Searchlight productions) in reminding viewers that drama doesn’t have to be so brutal. The themes invoke a warm awareness of simply being at home in one’s skin that makes Juno a pleasure to experience.
Grade: A+
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 96 min.
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