Juno Movie Review

Juno is the sweet and hilarious story of a high school girl, Juno (Ellen Page), who gets pregnant after sleeping with her friend-but-not-love-interest Pauly Bleeker (Michael Cera), and decides to give the baby to adoptive parents Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner). Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking) directs.

So, Juno might be the best movie of the year. The combination of a smart, witty script, an engaging story, and an absolutely perfect performance from Ellen Page that all click together for a movie that just works on all levels.

Ellen Page really drove this movie though. She was perfect for this movie. I was sold on her character from scene one, and it wasn't just because she was believable or anything, she infused charm and pain and hilarity and confusion and maturity into this character all at the same time, that you just couldn't help but be drawn into her character and her struggle as a 16-year-old who's trying to deal with a pregnancy and all this other stuff foreign to a high school girl. I can't say enough about how much I loved her performance, but she had some help too.

The supporting cast around her was great also. Michael Cera was solid and perfectly awkward as usual, but played a smaller part than I imagined. Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner were great as the adoptive parents. This kind of role has its stereotypes and crutches it can use, but this movie stayed away from that and really made these feel like original characters, and both played their characters very well. I loved Bateman and all the subtle emotion he brought to the role. Hard to explain,but you'll understand if you see it. Juno's dad and step-mom were great as well. The only character I could have done without was Juno's best girl friend, I didn't think she really did anything for the story and wasn't that great.

I mentioned the original character, and one of the great things about this movie is that, as much of a genre type film this is, the whole high school angst and awkwardness movie it seems to be, it really is a very original movie. All the characters are fresh and original, the quirky story and the honesty is real and original. You know, I've been mentioning honesty in humor a lot lately, which is something I value in a good comedy, and I think this year has shown a lot of that, but this movie probably sets the benchmark.

Now, one thing I originally didn't like was the "trying-to-hard-to-be-hip" language that they used, but as the move went on, it really did fit the characters, so I got used to it. There have been movies that get it totally wrong and the language gets annoying, but this one wasn't one of them. The music was the same way for me, kind of cutesy and quirky, but not as much, because it fit the story, but I think I would be the only one that had a problem with it as its on top of the iTunes album sales.

So, this is probably the best movie of the year. Unfortunately it's a comedy, so it's not going to get as much love during award season as it should, but there really aren't enough good things I can say about it. I loved it, I totally recommend it to everyone.

On the Reganometer, I give Juno a 10 out of 10.