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Juno 12A
SCREENINGS
Juno (Ellen Page) is a confidently frank teenage girl confronting an unplanned pregnancy by her classmate Bleeker (Michael Cera).
With the help of her best friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby), Juno finds her unborn child a "perfect" set of parents: an affluent suburban couple, Mark and Vanessa, longing to adopt. Luckily, Juno has the total support of her parents as she faces some tough decisions, flirts with adulthood and ultimately figures out where she belongs.
BBFC advice: Contains strong language and moderate sex references
"2007 was Hollywood’s Year Of The Unplanned-Pregnancy Comedy. First we had Adrienne Shelley’s Waitress; next was Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up; then, in December, Juno was delivered in the US.
... The second film from Jason Reitman, following his glib debut Thank You For Smoking, and the first script from stripper-turned-blogger-turned-writer Cody, Juno initially suffers from a callow need to impress. Our too-cool-to-be-true heroine (listens to The Stooges, affects a pipe) is introduced in scenes loaded with zingers that threaten to derail the film before it’s even started. Thankfully, after Juno has purchased her home pregnancy test from a corrosive store clerk and informed her cheerleader best friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby) of the big news, the pace and tone shifts.
... Juno’s softer side is first glimpsed in her relationship with the baby’s father, Paulie (another disarmingly awkward turn from Superbad’s Michael Cera). But amidst Juno’s teen-comedy conventions, Cody, Reitman and cast set about undermining them. When we first meet the adoptive parents in their suburban McMansion, the wife, Vanessa (Jennifer Garner), is presented as an uptight control-freak, leaving our sympathies resting with Jason Bateman’s Mark, a former grunge musician who now writes commercial jingles. But as Juno finds herself drawn to Mark and his collection of manga comics, the mood turns eerie: “I’m dealing with things way beyond my maturity level,” she tells her dad, in a moment that reveals just how young Juno truly is.
It’s scenes like this that give the film depth, as Juno gradually discovers who’s on her side in life’s battle. It’s like having the delicious cynicism of Ghost World and Heathers, but without any traces of the concomitant cruelty. Thanks to a perfectly judged three-act structure that follows the emotional highs and lows of Juno’s winter-to-summer pregnancy, the film saves its aces for last. Without giving too much away, after all that flip hipster yacking, the scenes that finally bring the tears are almost wholly without dialogue. As with all great wits, when it comes down to it, Juno knows exactly when to shut up.
A sharp-edged, sweet-centred, warm-hearted coming-of-age movie that’s always just that little bit smarter than you think it is."
"... Juno is a fiction with irresistible charm and wit and Page carries everything before her, creating a character with a powerful sense of right and wrong, an overwhelming belief in monogamy, and a nascent talent for leadership.
The film owes its power to Ellen Page's lovely performance and to Cody's funny script, which treats the subject of status with shrewdness and compassion. If women all too often find status only in the dangerous and expendable commodity of sexual attractiveness, then in getting pregnant, Juno would seem to have catastrophically abandoned this one tiny prerogative, and looked stupid into the bargain. Yet she finds that, as a pregnant woman, she is the centre of attention, and in offering her child for adoption, she has dizzying power over rich adults. It is a power that gives her insight and clarity, and humbles her elders. Like I said: this film is a happy pill."
UK RELEASE 8 February 2008
DIRECTOR Jason Reitman
CAST Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, J K Simmons
RUNNING TIME 96 minutes
COUNTRY Canada / USA / Hungary
official film website
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