ALARIS' REVIEWS

5th December 2008
Juno (2007)

There was a lot of high praise for this movie, so I went in with high expectations. It was certainly an enjoyable film, but not quite as witty or as colourful as I'd hoped.

The film revolves around a smart mouthed, cynical high schooler, Juno, who falls pregnant to her friend Bleeker. She promptly enters into an adoption agreement with a picture perfect couple, and the plot follows the course of her pregnancy, the reactions of her family and friends, and Juno's own evolving attitudes.

Ellen Page is excellent as Juno, subtly capturing the teen's vulnerability. Juno's blunt attitude could easily come across as a forced attempt at edgy cool, but Page keeps the character sympathetic. Michael Cera as Bleeker, and Jason Bateman as the picture perfect husband, are always fun to watch (both are in the TV series Arrested Development), and J. K. Simmons does a good job as Juno's affectionate father.

I always have a gripe, and in Juno, it's the sometimes patchy dialogue. Some of the language put in the character's mouths seem stylistically incongruous with the context, suddenly spouting sentences that sound like they took a few hours to write. If this had been consistent throughout the film, it would have been an interesting stylistic choice, used to such fantastic effect in the much darker Brick (starring the supernaturally wise Joseph Gordon Levitt). However, I found the intermingling between stylised and naturalistic to be a little intrusive.

Juno is a well made movie, with sympathetic characters, and a watchable plot. But if you're looking for something deeply incisive, loveably quirky, or fun and exciting, this wouldn't be the movie.

Verdict: A nice film about teenagers making mistakes, adults making mistakes, and people trying to work out who they are.

If you like thoughtful teen films, you might like Juno.