‘Juno’ is sharp, funny, sweet

“It’s amazing there’s saps that actually cry at this,” quips 16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) as she gazes at the murky images of an ultrasound. The fuzzy glob is her own unexpected pregnancy, the product of a spontaneous quickie with her best friend and longtime crusher Paul Bleeker (the always brilliant Michael Cera). She has chosen to give the baby up for adoption, and her willed detachment from the situation is telling; wise beyond her years and far too clever for her own good, she spends her life hiding behind a thick coat of irony. To Juno, being knocked up isn’t a life-changing event, but rather, just another of life’s stupid situations. And the sooner it’s over with, the better.

Written by first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody, Juno shares many of the same traits as its hero. The dialogue crackles but risks never allowing the audience in; characters threaten to remain buried beneath a mound of quirks, or worse, descend into easy parody. The film could have easily crumbled into an overwritten mess, but what rescues it from aren’t-I-clever self-indulgence is the humanity allowed each character. When Juno first meets her child’s would-be adoptive parents, the very boring Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), Vanessa tells her she finds pregnancy beautiful. “Well, you’re lucky it’s not you,” Juno quickly fires back, and it’s the genuine pain and confusion on Vanessa’s face—and the fact that director Jason Reitman has taken time to show it—that helps elevate the film above its hipster trappings. Cynicism is easy, but Juno, despite its barrage of clever one-liners, doesn’t take the easy way out. It’s simply one of the sharpest, funniest, sweetest films to come along in a long while.

JUNO DIR. JASON REITMAN | RATED R | AT SELECT THEATERS

Tags: Film, juno, michael cera