Juno

Nothing is better than a light hearted comedy after an emotional, melancholy French film. I once watched Big Fish and 21 Grams back to back but made the mistake of watching Big Fish first. The result was I came out with a spring in my step from the first film before being utterly brought down by the grim message of 21 Grams. Lesson learned, watch the comedy second. Juno therefore became a quite pleasant follow-up to Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Juno tells the story of Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page), a sarcastic, abrasive anti-high school establishment teenager who winds up after a sexual encounter with her best friend pregnant and unsure as to what to do. After a brief consideration of abortion she decides to have the baby and let a young couple adopt it. Along the way we meet several important people in Juno's life including her loving father (J.K. Simmons) and step-mother (Allison Janney), her best friends Leah (Olivia Thirlby) and Paulie Bleeker, the father of the baby (Michael Cera).

The yuppie adopting couple are played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Batemen and both reveal characters that are more complex and complicated than the first appear. All of these things and the general sincerity with which the movie deals with the subject matter is of course the point and the power of the film. And these are well developed characters. When you see Simmons as Juno's father utter sharp, sarcastic statements you know where Juno has picked up here wit from. There is a care and attention to detail of these characters that is genuinely enjoyable to watch.

Which serves the film well since at times its just a bit too tragically hip for its own good. The soundtrack is a bit too omnipresent and a final scene involving an acoustic guitar had me rolling my eyes. But despite that the charm is there and not to be forgotten. The film is actually funny. Perhaps its just my preference for stark sarcastic humor (I've been called sardonic at least once in my life) that made me laugh so much in the film. My hands down favorite scene involved Allison Janney telling off a ultrasound technician.

Ultimately I think it falls into a category of fun, charming and decent film but doesn't exactly wow me to a point of thinking its great film-making. It is also perhaps a bit too kids gloves with the discussion of teen pregnancy, abortion and the like. Still the experience is worth having and the sweetness of the comedy is never sweet to the point of nausea. I walked away smiling and thats pretty good.