JUNO
Director: Jason Reitman Stars: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Alison Janney, J K Simmons
Reviewed by MARCUS SINCLAIR
Jason Reitman's Juno is a gem. It does for film what J D Salinger's Catcher In The Rye did for literature back in the late Fifties. Both are vivid portraits of adolescents: the former a girl, Juno MacGuff, superbly played by Ellen Page, the latter a boy, Holden Caulfield. Both are highly critical of the society in which they live and have trouble fitting in with the accepted activities of their peers and elders.
Juno, a plain, but far from ugly high schooler, is the product of a broken marriage. She lives with her father and his second wife. She tolerates them (as they do her), keeps to her own room as much as possible, and comes, goes and confides with a close girl friend. She's also keen on Bleeker (Michael Cera), a fellow student in her class who is a bit of a misfit. He's highly intelligent, makes an effort to join in with the jocks on their sporting activities, but doesn't appear to have any close friends amongst them.
He is dreamy and spends much of his spare time listening to pop music and strumming a guitar, an interest he has in common with Juno. Knowing in his shy away that he is lusting for her, she decides to accommodate him, with the result that she falls pregnant, has the child, puts it out for adoption, and gets on with her life.
Nothing new here, but it is the telling that makes this film something special. The reaction of the parents, of her friend, the kids at school, and others are deftly drawn, as is Juno's resignation to the situation in which she finds herself and Bleeker's response to it. The visuals are intimate, dialogue is real, touching and often funny, and the scene at the ultra-sound examination where the attendant, who becomes morally righteous and highly critical of Juno's behaviour, is beautifully put in her place by Juno's step-mother is, alone, well worth the price of admission.
The overall message of the film is Times are changing, and that change is inevitable whether it be for better or worse for the general populous. Different attitudes must be cultivated to keep abreast with it; different customs and mores ill emerge; but in the end, whatever the result, people must have the right to develop - to make their own decisions as to how they live, provided they keep within the utilitarian principle of doing that which results in happiness/satisfaction for the individual and does not interfere with that of others. Juno, fully aware of herself as an individual, and by being determined to hold onto her individuality, shows maturity well beyond her years.