Crazy Kids

"Juno" is like a nice dinner, you get just the right amount of portions that don't spoil your appetite, and you don't leave overstuffed. There were so many times "Juno" could've gone off the deep end by being too clever or too self-satisfied with itself, but it does a great balancing act by maintaining a sense of credibility with its characters. Most of the credit can go to Ellen Page a very gifted actress who plays the 16 year old Juno MacGuff who gets herself pregnant.

Juno is the special kind of kid who is wise beyond her years, she's clever, insightful, has good taste in music and horror movies, and has just the right amount of eccentricity that doesn't make her annoying. But Juno is also a very scared teenager who is still figuring out what kind of person she is. She doesn't have all the answers, but she's smart enough to know she's too young to have a baby.

She decides to not have an abortion, and adopt her baby instead to a young couple. She finds what she thinks is the perfect couple Mark and Vanessa Loring (Played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) who's ad she sees in a penny saver. Mark and Vanessa are well off, they live in a big house that looks like the baby would be loved in. But pretty soon Juno comes to a realization that not is all that it appears in this picture perfect world.

Juno also has to cope her feelings towards the father of the child Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) a young man who is accustomed to wearing a very hilarious red and yellow track and field outfit. Juno and Paulie are just friends and we are told that their having sex was simply out of boredom, but what we get by Cera's masterful deadpan expressions and slight cracking of the voice when he speaks to Juno is that his feeling run deeper.

What keeps "Juno" afloat are the characters, they are all drawn out, after the movie there wasn't one of them I didn't like. Perhaps the most heartfelt characters are Juno's father and step mother played wonderfully by J.K. Simmons, and Allison Janney. When Juno first tells them of her pregnancy they react probably the same way all loving parents would with shock and disappointment. You can see the hurt in the room when Juno's father tells her "I thought you were the kind of girl who knew when to say when." But afterwards they stick by her and support her decision, like all parents should.

This film has been getting wide critical acclaim since it's premier at the Toronto Film Festival, but others have dismissed it for being too clever. Perhaps the character of Juno is too good to be true, and there were times I thought the words coming out of her mouth seemed a bit pretentious than clever, but personally I think she comes off that way because deep down she doesn't have all the answers and she herself knows that. Juno does the best that any 16 year old could do in her circumstances, and she's learning along the way.

4 stars out of 4