Home > Movies > Movie Review > Juno

Juno

Oh, baby! A pregnancy comedy this likable is no accident

By Matt Pais

Metromix
December 5, 2007

Critic's Rating:

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After a one-time experiment with her best friend (Michael Cera) results in pregnancy, Juno (Ellen Page) forgoes an abortion so that she can give the baby to a couple in need (quietly panicking Jason Bateman and better-than-ever Jennifer Garner).

Big question: Is director Jason Reitman's follow-up to "Thank You For Smoking" a heartwarming story about accidents and solutions or just a high school version of "Knocked Up"? ("Knocked Up 2: No Prom for Mom"?)

Catch it: Page is wonderful, conveying the immaturity, the terror and the strength that tussle inside her simply in the way she talks to her parents or leaves a room. Cera, Garner and J.K. Simmons, as Juno's dad, are also just-right. Rather than judge its characters or get too cute, the movie just sees life for how it really is: scary, unpredictable but also pleasant and a blessing.

Skip it: If you don't want to think about being in a position like Juno's as she hungers for both cookies and lamb kebabs. That is, assuming you're not in the mood for that right now.

Bottom line: First-time screenwriter Diablo Cody's snarkiness occasionally steers the sincerity off course, but despite tossed-off points of aggravation with things like "tot ice skating," "Juno" is still a snappy, non-precious movie with legitimate sweetness rather than delusions of it (think "Little Miss Sunshine."). It's not as hysterical but much more rewarding than "Knocked Up," allowing kids to be kids, adults to be adults and each to spend a little time as the other.

Bonus: Some valuable lessons you can learn from "Juno": boysenberry condoms make your genitals smell like pie; you can distinguish Franklin Delano Roosevelt from Teddy Roosevelt because FDR was "the hot one with polio"; and there's no more apt way for high schoolers to summarize their connection than, "He's the cheese to my macaroni."

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