Juno [2007] - DVD (Ellen Page, Michael Cera, J.K. Simmons, Allison Janney, Jennifer Garner - Dir: Jason Reitman)

Somewhere between the sharp satire of Election and the rich human comedy of You Can Count On Me lies Juno, a sardonic but ultimately compassionate story of a pregnant teenage girl who wants to give her baby up for adoption. Social misfit Juno (Ellen Page, Hard Candy, X-Men: The Last Stand) protects herself with a caustic wit, but when she gets pregnant by her friend Paulie (Michael Cera, Superbad), Juno finds herself unwilling to terminate the pregnancy. When she chooses a couple who place a classified ad looking to adopt, Juno gets drawn further into their lives than she anticipated.

But Juno is much more than its plot; the stylised dialogue (by screenwriter Diablo Cody) seems forced at first, but soon creates a richly textured world, greatly aided by superb performances by Page, Cera, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the prospective parents, and J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man) and Allison Janney as Juno's father and stepmother. Director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking) deftly keeps the movie from slipping into easy, shallow sarcasm or foundering in sentimentality. The result is smarter and funnier than you might expect from the subject matter, and warmer and more touching than you might expect from the cocky attitude. Page's performance is deceptively simple; she never asks the audience to love her, yet she effortlessly carries a movie in which she's in almost every scene. That's star power. -- Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews of Juno [2007]

haunted
IRELAND
5th November 2008

Fast Talking but Heart Warming
I enjoyed this film a lot.
The story is relatively simple. A schoolgirl gets pregnant and decides to put the baby up for adoption.
She happens to be a wisecracking smartass, perhaps enough to be really annoying. In fact she seems such a know it all you wonder how she got herself into this trouble at all! However the film makes it clear however that Juno, depsite trying to be uber mature, is still just a girl.

Have no doubt, this is a "feelgood" film.
Nearly all the characters are basically decent people and the plot is tied up perhaps too neatly. The development of Juno's relationship with her step mother would nearly bring a tear to your eye alone.
The different storylines in the film are combined well together by the director, such as Juno's relationships with the prospective adoptive parents and with the father of the baby.

Great performances all round really make the film. Page, Cera, Garner,Bateman, Janney and Simmons are all excellent.
For a few laughs and maybe a few tears watch this film.

JEY
Largs, UK
21st October 2008

Quirky and Charming
I loved this movie about a sassy, sarky but good-hearted pregnant teen determined to do what's right for her unborn baby. It was entertaining and zipped along at a fair pace as Juno's quirky, dry humored narrative unfolded the story and the seasons of her pregnancy. The script was an absolute delight, filled with biting wit and surprising dramatic insights.

Sometimes I did get that little voice in my head that said "People don't talk like this!" (especially at the beginning with the drugstore guy) but the sheer charm and charisma of the characters pretty much shut it up.

It's obvious Ellen Page really excels at playing world weary wise beyond their years teenage girls. I remembered her doing a cracking one in 'Hard Candy' and she's on top form here. She well deserved that Oscar nod.

A not so bitter, not so sweet but juuuust about right feel good movie.

David Byrne
United Kindgom
6th October 2008

Juno
I like this film. It makes me feel young again Lol I love the juno character , she is so cool. Im defo going to buy this , i love it

Silverfish
Preston, Lancs
10th September 2008

Quirky-by-numbers
As a previous reviewer said, this film tries too had to be different. It's as though the film makers knew all the ingredients to make a kooky, weird independant film, but didn't know how to mix them together.

I'm normally a fan of these types of films - Lost in Translation, The Life Aquatic, and all that - but despite its obvious desire to be highly charming, Juno just feels hollow. There's no emotional gravity, no real depth of character. You feel as though the target audience is the same age or younger than the main actors, as though Juno were the movie equivalent of those cheap plastic "my first kitchen" oven sets they sell in toy stores.

I use the term 'actors' loosely. It doesn't help that Ellen Page isn't a very good actress. Annoyingly sarcastic and smarter-than-thou throughout, she's instantly dislikable. Michael Cera is neither good nor bad, just seems to float along on whatever script is handed to him (he was hilarious in Superbad, but not so in this one).

It reminds me of an Apple commercial, particularly the recent line of iPhone ads - all slick and fake cutesy charm, distilled and dumbed-down, created for people who are more into style than substance, who want to be cool so much that they'll pay anything you ask them to. A victim of the filthy practice of marketing executives packaging "being different" and trying to sell it back to us.

Sorry, Juno, but I ain't buying.

Mmmm Shiny
uk
2nd September 2008

Annoying and generic.
The makers of Juno seem determined to make it quirky and different and have made the same rubbish as numerous other so called independent movies. The music is a love it or hate it thing. I didn't like it. The dialogue is terrible, no one talks like thatm well a few people but not all the time. The onlt likeable character was the kid that fathered said sprog. he actually comes off as sweet and likable.