SLIGHT SPOILERS WITHIN
Every year, there comes at least one little indie that could. Past years brought surprise audience favorites like Little Miss Sunshine and Napoleon Dynamite, the first of which was a critical darling and contender for the prized Best Picture Oscar. Following in those movie's footsteps, this year's Juno was touted since day one as the quirky audience charmer to beat.
Perhaps, after all of the premature gushing, it's understandable that my first viewing of the movie left me chuckling...with doubts. I went into the film with high expectations (mainly due to the participation of two Arrested Development alums, Michael Cera and Jason Bateman) but left a bit confused what all the fuss was about. A few nights ago I journeyed to downtown Missoula, with every other twenty-something in town, and found myself swept up in the charm. What had changed?
Juno, despite the title, isn't about a city in Alaska, but instead about a girl who finds herself pregnant at sixteen and unsure of how to continue. Blessed (or cursed) with a wicked sarcastic tongue and a bedroom decked out in ironic memorabilia from decades past, Juno decides that her age and maturity level makes her ill-equipped to mother a child, and begins searching for adoptive parents (Bateman and Jennifer Garner). Along the way she delivers some side- splitting one-liners, and does a bit of growing in the process.
On first view, I found the script's constant use of one-liners to be a sad substitute for character development. Juno grew bigger and bigger in size, yet I never found myself emotionally connecting to her, or the peripheral characters. Save for a touching scene between, the always wonderful, J.K. Simmons (coincidentally from Missoula), I walked out of the movie feeling relatively little.
First time screenwriter, Diablo Cody, appeared to have earnest intentions with the movie, but I took most of the script as an attempt to merchandise talking dolls of Juno and her friends saying "Hand to blog?!" to be sold at Urban Outfitters. Perhaps the doll of Juno and Napoleon Dynamite could date in the bargain bin? That's not to say that on the first viewing I didn't enjoy the movie, I found much to like in it. However, on second viewing I started to see what all the fuss was about.
From the opening shot, where we see Juno staring at a recliner in her front lawn, sarcastic voice-over blaring, Ellen Page delivers a career making performance. While my qualms about her being a little too knowing carried over to my second viewing, it’s nonetheless a winning portrayal of an adolescent girl caught in an unlikely situation. What makes the movie work so well, is that instead of using the pregnancy as a way to ruin the heroine’s life, she becomes a stronger heroine throughout. It helps that she is supported by a cast that, like most other winning indie comedies, is full of polished professionals and fresh upstarts.
I’m not quite sure what category Michael Cera, as the unlikely man with the powerful sperm, falls into. Just 19 years-old, Cera has already established a list of strong comedy credentials that most actors only dream of. His impeccable comic timing, gangly body and charming persona are utilized well in the film. On first view I was disappointed in the lack of relationship development between Juno and Bleeker (Cera). The second time around I realized that it was an honest portrayal of the fleeting high school romances that consume teenager’s lives; they are sometimes built upon very little, but can somehow help people grow.
Other than Cera, Allison Janney makes the strongest impact in her supporting role as Juno’s stepmother. The development of the characters, most often through set decoration and hobbies (as with Janney’s dog-loving fascination) borders on being too animated, but is consistent throughout. Everything from Juno’s hamburger phone, to Bleeker’s goofy sweatbands, Juno’s Sunny D guzzle, or Bateman’s fixation on guitars and gore, provide the clearest character development, whereas in most films it’s what comes out of the characters mouths that defines them most vividly. Here, what comes out is funny, but it's where they are and what surrounds them that illuminates them.
Every bit of me still cringes slightly at how manufactured to charm this movie appears to be. The cast, the props, the dialogue, even the soundtrack are, as my friend Angelina put it, “too cute by half.” That being said, it’s a sweet movie deserving of praise.
I totally agree with your assesment of the movie, and I'm beginning to think that if I saw it a second time, I might enjoy it more, since your second viewing proved so successful. I agree about Janney and Cera; however, I found myself wanting to kill Juno by the end of the film and hug everyone else.
Posted by: Alie | January 15, 2008 at 08:45 PM