Juno is one of those films that should not work as well as it does. A teenage pregnancy comedy with a quirky indie sensibility, written by a former stripper, starring an actress then largely unknown — the components do not obviously add up to something special. And yet.
What It Does Right
Ellen Page’s performance as Juno MacGuff is what holds the film together. She plays Juno as genuinely smart, genuinely funny, and genuinely seventeen — which means the armour of wit she deploys is recognisably a defence mechanism rather than simply a character trait. The moments when the armour slips are earned and moving.
Diablo Cody’s script won the Academy Award for Original Screenplay, and while the hyper-stylised dialogue has its critics — people do not actually talk like Juno — it creates a consistent world. The film is not trying to be realism. It is trying to be a specific kind of emotional truth, and it finds it.
The Supporting Cast
Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the prospective adoptive parents give the film its most interesting subtext. Their story is, arguably, sadder than Juno’s. J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney as Juno’s parents are exactly right — unconditionally supportive in a way that is both refreshing and, I suspect, the film’s most deliberately utopian element.
A warm, funny, genuinely affecting film. It earns its reputation.