Run, Don't Walk
Part Three

In case you haven’t heard, Juno is the latest film directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking) and written by former stripper turned blogger turned screenwriter Diablo Cody. The film stars the wonderfully tiny Ellen Page as the titular heroine who finds herself 16 and pregnant. After deciding against an abortion (a fellow student, a lone abortion clinic protester, tells her that her baby has fingernails) Juno decides to find a couple (“maybe a couple of lesbos”) to adopt her baby.

When Juno started I was worried that I was in for one of those grating “cute” indie comedies a la Little Miss Sunshine. You know the kind, where quirky people do quirky things that have no bearing on the real world and could only exist in a cloyingly annoying indie comedy. Juno has some of those moments right away: when told of the pregnancy, Juno’s best friend says, “Honest to blog?” and while talking on a phone shaped like a hamburger, Juno says, “I’m talking on my hamburger phone.”

Once you get used to the impossible slang and settle in to the perfect pacing Juno starts to shine. The characters and situations never quite go where you expect them and there are constant little moments where real human emotion bounces off the screen. Jennifer Garner as the prospective adoptive mother especially shines. Without much dialogue, she conveys so much about her character through her expressions and those brown eyes (I’ve never seen Alias or 13 Going on 30 and all I could think was “Jennifer Garner? Who knew?”) As her husband, Jason Bateman continues to choose interesting roles in great projects and the immaturity of his character bouncing off the youth of Juno makes for some very interesting tension and anyone with geek tendencies will love the scenes with Page and Bateman.

Michael Cera, Alison Janney and J.K. Simmons don’t do anything we haven’t seen them do before, but they do what they do best in what is a showcase for their talents. Each of the actors gets their moment to stand out in a film where the main character dominates almost every scene.

Diablo Cody has written an interesting movie for our times. It is pro-life in a post-feminist way that never approaches preachy and doesn’t ever seem anywhere near being anti-choice. Somehow she has crafted a screenplay that pleases both the left and the right but is never political. She gives her teenage characters voices that are original and exciting and I’m going to be following her career to see what she does next.

The last scene of the movie is a quiet scene between Michael Cera and Ellen Page that is just note-perfect and quietly ends this very funny and surprisingly moving film. Between the direction and the writing, Juno is entertaining, smart, and hilarious. It is also unlike most of what’s been at your local multiplex in a long time.

Run, don’t walk to see Juno as soon as you can.