Juno

Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janey, J.K. Simmons, Olivia Thirlby
Running Time: 91 minutes
Rating: R

***1/2 (out of ****)

I see a lot of movies. So many in fact that it’s virtually impossible to review all of them. Every once in a while I’ll have to skip writing about a couple which usually occurs with little damage done and no looking back. Occasionally though, films I didn’t have time to review have a way of rearing their heads later and making me second guess whether I made the right call. Two of those lesser-seen films were Jason Reitman’s 2005 directorial debut Thank You For Smoking and 2006's jolting drama Hard Candy. I thought the first was a clever, biting film that I all but forgot about five minutes after it ended. I can’t say the same for Hard Candy, a certifiable masterpiece that featured an unforgettable powerhouse performance from Ellen Page as a disturbed young girl who entraps a pedophile that should have earned her an Academy Award.

Little did I know at the time that the director of one of those films and the star of the other would team up for Juno, one of the most critically acclaimed and over-hyped movies of 2007. Nor did I know that I wouldn’t be able to turn on the television without hearing their names or the personal story of the film’s screenwriter, Diablo Cody. Logging into any web site these past couple of months without seeing that ubiquitous orange stripe and the title character’s baby bump became impossible, with the media saturation of Juno reaching unrelenting heights. If everyone’s rooting for the underdog, can it really even be considered the underdog? I do wish I had gotten in on the ground level and saw it months ago because I don’t think I fully realized just how sick I was of hearing about the film until I actually entered the theater to watch it and the opening credits rolled. I asked myself why I was there and the movie answered me, erasing all my doubts for the next hour and a half.

Hype or not, any film lives or dies by its own merits and while Juno isn’t completely perfect, it’s pretty damn close and supercedes in what it’s trying to do. It takes the thankless topic of pregnancy, which was already butchered in two brain-dead films this past year, and invests it with warmth and intelligence, a small miracle considering how meager the premise is on paper. Looking beyond the quirky and sometimes unconventionally ridiculous dialogue it’s a movie that gets the little details of real life just right and features some of the best supporting performances of the year. But make no mistake about it the movie belongs to Ellen Page for her Oscar nominated turn as a pregnant teenager who the movie doesn’t ask us to necessarily like or even tolerate, but just understand. That’s an important distinction many of the film’s growing detractors have failed to recognize. But by the end of the movie Page’s performance gives us little choice but to like her, whether we want to or not. And believe me, I went in dead set against it.

After a pretty cool opening credit sequence the film has an off-putting start with quasi-hipster dialogue being sprayed all over the place that’s tough to make heads or tails of. So much so that it doesn’t even sound like the characters are speaking the English language and it takes a good ten minutes to adjust to their manner of speech because at first it sounds unlike anything you’ve heard before, either in life or in a movie. I’m suspecting that’s a major reason why Cody’s script has been attracting so much positive and negative attention, even though that really shouldn’t be what’s primarily focused on (despite how endlessly quotable and hilarious most of the quirky dialogue is). Most of these zingers are delivered by wise-cracking 16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Page) who’s gotten herself into a little bit of a “pickle,” as it’s referred to throughout the film, after sleeping with her best friend, the shy and nerdy school track team member Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera).

A few EPT tests later she discovers she’s pregnant and at the urging of her best friend Leah (a scene-stealing Olivia Thirlby) comes clean to her maintenance man dad (J.K. Simmons) and dog-loving step-mom (Allison Janey). They’re reaction to the news is surprising and not at all what I expected and I think the reason why is because they actually reacted how real parents would. The scene is both hysterical and touching, as well as the first true sign that underneath all that showy verbiage is a story with genuine substance. A lot of credit can also go to Simmons and Janey who play their roles with pitch-perfect precision. They seem real, which is high praise considering most movie parents seem like overprotective cartoons.

After a briefly flirting with the idea of abortion and a scary clinic visit, Juno decides she’s going to give the baby up for adoption. The lucky couple (found through a PennySaver ad) is Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), a pair of rich yuppies who look like they just stepped out of Town and Country magazine. Mark is a commercial jingle composer who dreams of rock stardom and seems more interested in hanging around the house watching low budget horror movies than being a dad. The uptight Vanessa’s whole world literally revolves around adopting a child. You could categorize them as stereotypes, but really, aren’t all yuppies stereotypes?

Cody’s script takes those stereotypes and somehow finds a way to present them as fresh, while at the same time investing them with considerable depth. The relationship between Mark and Vanessa just may be the most complex in the film and the turns they both take during the course of the story is surprising (or at least would have been had every media outlet not taken the liberty of spoiling it for me). Neither is exactly what they seem to be or how we perceive them at first. Nearly every relationship in this film means something and contributes to the story. The major one is obviously between Juno and Paulie but that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of how deep everything goes.

The real skill of the movie is how it depicts the little details between the cracks. Like how the popular cheerleader is best friends with an oddball like Juno. Or how that same best friend has a hysterically unhealthy attachment to her teacher. Or how no one can believe Bleeker is capable of getting anyone pregnant. It’s tough to explain but every scene contains a little surprise or two you don’t expect, and what’s most amazing is that everything seems to look so effortless and flow so well. We see Paulie’s track team running in their ridiculous attire throughout the film indicating the passing of the seasons as we get closer to the due date. Reitman overdoes it a little with the music (provided by indie singer/songwriter Kimya Dawson) at times but no one could say it doesn’t perfectly fit Juno’s quirky sensibilities or the film’s tone. The ending is sappy and sentimental, but this is a story that actually earns it for a change. Going in I expected this to be a writer’s film more than a director’s but it’s actually Reitman’s assured handling of the material and tight control over the story that reigns in a lot of Cody’s over-the-top and occasionally self-indulgent dialogue, especially in the beginning.

It’s often forgotten that the job of a screenwriter is two-fold. The first is the actual writing of the dialogue and construction of the story, but the second tougher underlying job is making that story actually mean something. Some movies contain brilliant, snappy dialogue but behind it is no substance because we don’t care about the characters. I don’t necessarily have to believe that real people talk this way, but rather that these people would and I did for every minute of the picture.

Everyone does speak pretentiously but it doesn’t ring false because they use it as a defense mechanism against dealing with the uncomfortable situation with which they’ve been presented. That’s most true with Juno and what makes Page’s performance so special is not her ability to so naturally deliver all that quirky dialogue (although that is a huge accomplishment) but what she hints at beneath it. Yes, this girl made a stupid mistake but the movie and the characters acknowledge just how idiotic it was and deal with it. Even her.

Juno’s witty sarcasm is just her way of coping with a disaster she knows was her own doing. Saying the movie fails because the dialogue is “too clever” is completely missing the point and doesn’t take into account the bigger picture. I don’t care so much about the dialogue as much as the context it’s presented in and the purpose behind it. Page’s performance here isn’t at the level of her work in Hard Candy but considering few female performances I’ve ever seen are that’s not such a bad thing. It’s a tricky, tightrope walk that couldn’t have been executed nearly as well by any other actress and it would have been a different, far lesser film without her in the lead. If she took home the gold Oscar night you wouldn’t hear any complaints from me.

So you think the executives at Fox television have suffered enough yet for their mistreatment of Arrested Development? Have they learned their lesson? Previously known only for starring in a brilliant, but ratings-challenged show, it seems almost ironic now that Jason Bateman and Michael Cera (who don’t share a single scene together in this) are in one of the most profitable movies of the year that’s up for four Academy Awards. For anyone who watched that show this isn’t a surprise at all. What was surprising to me was how big and important a role Bateman had in the film. As I was exiting the theater I overheard an elderly couple raving about how great a job they thought Bateman did in the film. I thought the exact same thing and it just may be the great, overlooked performance of the movie that should have generated Oscar buzz of it’s own.

At times it carries the movie and the friendship that develops between his Mark and Juno is really interesting. You’re never exactly sure how the movie will handle it and a lot of that credit goes to Bateman who plays him both as a really cool guy, but someone who’s dealing with some big issues of his own as well. This is the best film work of his career so far. Cera actually doesn’t have as much screen time as you may think, but the role is invaluable and I actually thought Reitman found a way to dial his awkwardness down a notch and he gives a quietly effective, intelligent performance. Jennifer Garner doesn’t fair nearly as well as everyone else and could be considered the one weak acting link in the film. At times she seems almost a little too mannered and stilted.

The recent backlash against this film has been some of the strongest I’ve ever seen. It’s been downright scary to read the internet venom spewed, specifically at Diablo Cody. Eli Roth must be thrilled to have a couple of months off as movie buffs have channeled all their hatred toward her of late. It’s both uplifting and depressing that a script written by a ex-stripper/blogger during her lunch breaks at Target gets optioned and she’s hits the jackpot. Uplifting because it proves anything’s possible, yet depressing because it means there may be other brilliant undiscovered spec scripts hiding out there that may never see the light of day because Hollywood is too busy greenlighting Norbit 2. Considering how many aspiring screenwriters there are out there I can’t help but think that some of the anger directed at her is just pure jealousy.

The big question is whether Juno really is as good as everyone’s been saying it is. In the midst of all the hype surrounding it it’s impossible for me to answer that question right now. Time will tell whether this holds up really well or not. Its Oscar trajectory has been compared a lot recently to another small film that could, last year’s Little Miss Sunshine (also released by Fox Searchlight). That was nominated for Best Picture, shoved down our throats by the press, yet now the film seems almost trite and insignificant (and it’s only been a year). There’s no telling if the same fate will await this but as much as it pains me to say it I can’t name any more than a few films in ’07 that I thought were better than it…so far.

While part of me wonders if the film seems so good because its ambitions are so modest, there is something undeniably special and unique in feel about it and it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what. It has an original voice and at its center is a strong female character, something we’re not given nearly enough of in mainstream movies these days. I can’t say I’ll be rooting hard for it on Oscar night but that’s the media fault, not the film’s. If Reitman, Cody and Page are normal people like I suspect they are they’re probably as burnt out and as sick of talking about the movie as we are hearing about it. I’m sure they’re ready to move on to the next thing and I know I’ve had my fill of pregnancy movies. Any more and I’ll probably go into labor myself. But at the end of the day, the fact that Juno is a very good film is tough to ignore. And that’s all that should matter.