Juno: Organic and Unforced review

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Tom Elce reviews Juno, the film has won BAFTA award for best direction and has been nominated for 4 Oscars

The script for "Juno" could well be the best one that has achieved screen treatment in the past year; The lead acting performance by Ellen Page could well be the best one of the past year; And the collective film could well be one of the best of the past year.

Indeed, Jason Reitman's wise-cracking, referencial hipster teen pregnancy comedy has a more considerable laugh count that even Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up" (to which "Juno" has drawn some comparison) and boasts more loveable characters than that film did, to boot. A shining example of what can be done in the comedy genre when proceedings aren't littered with gross-out gags and toilet humour, the incisive, hilarious "Juno" excels in every department.

By now you've probably heard that screenwriter Diablo Cody is a former stripper turned hot property author and scripter, but I'll just remind you anyway. A script seemingly headed for some probably Oscar glory, hers tells the story of 16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page), an offbeat young girl whose most recent trip to the store (full to the brim with Sunny D of course) to by a pregnancy test confirms the wretched truth: That she's pregnant following a one-time bunk with geeky best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). When a trip to the abortion clinic leads her to change her mind on whether to keep the baby, Juno resolves to have a couple "desperately seeking spawn," as cheerleader friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby) puts it, adopt the little tyke. Said couple happen to be Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark Loring (Jason Bateman), a nice couple who's desire to have a baby equals Juno's desire not to have one. Juno agrees to let them adopt her baby and goes through the pregnancy with a view to the Lorings taking it on when she gives birth. Naturally, there come the moral questions Juno has to ask herself over the next nine months about whether she's doing the right thing, not to mention the nagging feeling that her feelings for Paulie could well be worth more than one encounter on a chair.

Directing his follow-up to 2006's almost-as-good "Thank You For Smoking," Jason Reitman, along with screenwriter Diablo Cody, ably conveys Juno's story in a way that switches between hilarity and poignancy. Indeed, seemingly random one-liners come at a frequent rate - "Thundercats are go!" screams the titular teen when it appears her baby may be breaking out - but none at the expense of believable characters as flawed and emotional as they are hip and quick-witted. Juno, for example, uses her sarcastic attitude more as a shield against a less cuddly world that she painfully learns she might not be ready to deal with on her own. At the same time, her parents - dad Mac (J.K. Simmons) and stepmom Bren (Allison Janney) - are similarly spoken as their daughter, but also act as stabilising factors for her. The notion, then, is that, one-liners and all, underneath all the irreverence they each love each other, and act as rocks to each other.

It seemed inevitable that I would love "Juno" by the time the end credits were over and Juno had made her first trip (from our perspective) to the store to buy an umpteenth pregnancy test. It is fair to say that events aren't as funny as in this scene - which features a memorable Rainn Wilson in a bit-part as clerk Rollo - until another twenty minutes have gone by, but from that point onwards "Juno" is a veritable laugh riot the likes of which hasn't been seen since 2007's "Superbad." What initially sounded like something you might (not) see premiering on a Hallmark or Lifetime network is anything but as dreary a prospect as that; "Juno" is the proposed "Little Miss Sunshine" of this calendar year and it deserves whatever accolades are to be heaped upon it.

The acting performances are uniformly strong, none moreso than that of Ellen Page in the leading role of Juno MacGuff. In a splendid follow-up portrayal to her excellent display in 2006's "Hard Candy," Page becomes the defensive, offbeat Juno so convincingly that it scarcely seems like she's acting. She can make you laugh times, yet bring you close to tears when the script calls for it. Indeed, if Page is to be honoured at the Oscars or any other awards ceremony, it is nothing that she doesn't deserve. Supporting work is excellent also, with J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney stealing scenes whenever they turn up as Juno's hip parents. Olivia Thirlby and Michael Cera play Juno's friends Leah and Paulie, respectively, to sublime effect, even if it seems like the latter may be re-visiting his character in 2007's "Superbad." Jennifer Garner plays perhaps the film's least positive character, Vanessa, without seeming like too much of a negative presence and, finally, Jason Bateman splendidly essays Mark Loring, who bonds with Juno over their shared love for music and gorey films to the point where it ultimately becomes apparent to Juno that Mark may not be as up for parenting as Vanessa is.

"Juno" feels organic and unforced, the out-of-left-field jokes and one-liners coming at a frequent rate being surprisingly mixed into the film without ever feeling strained or, indeed, out of place. The self-depracating title character - who has odd preferences for blue raspberry slushies and phones of the hamburger variety - is just one of the many reasons viewers will be falling in love with it. Sprinkling pop-cultural references left, right and centre without ever lacking for its own individuality and identity, "Juno" gets laughs aplenty out of its digs at modern social culture as well as its own unique, quirky treatment of subject matter that otherwise might not have made the fit in the genre of comedy. Out of the three well-known pregnancy movies released in the past year - the others being "Waitress" and "Knocked Up" - it is also the only one that poses the troublesome question of abortion. "Juno" is clever as well as hysterical.

[rating:4]

Director: Jason Reitman

Cast: Ellen Page, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Michael Cera, J.K. Simmons, Allison Janney, Olivia Thirlby, Rainn Wilson, Lucas MacFadden, Daniel Clark, Valerie Tian, Ashley Whillans, Candice Accola