Juno (2007)

Regular and keen readers of this blog will know that i am a big fan of the genre, if it is such a genre, of quirky comedy, and Juno falls into such a genre. Though unlike films by directora such as Wes Anderson, Juno, is more firmly based in a more familiar and real world. It tells the story of 16 year old high school student Juno, who is pregnant. she decides to give the baby up for adoption, it basically follows her journey with the hopeful adopted parents to be, her friendship/relationship with father and fellow high school student Paulie Bleeker and also focuses on her relationship with her dad and step mum.

I would like to first mention, almost as a side note that the film starts with a brilliant animated credit sequence that follows juno on her travels to the local store. A great way to kick of the film and provided for a hip and light starting tone for the film. Where this film succeeds the most is in its heartfelt moments. Some moments in this film are truely touching, and not only that but each subplot seems to have one moment where everything is about the emotions of these characters. Be it Juno's breakdown, Paulie's mis-understanding of the situation and naive approach, the father and step mother connecting with their daughter while remaining supportive and strong. It doesn't stop there, from the hopeful adopting parents, the woman, Venessa, some of the moments where we get the true degree of her need to be a mother again work brilliantly.

Where i feel this film takes some mis steps are within the charatcer of Mark, the husband of venessa. His character is not ready to grow up, still having dreams of playing in bands and being generally, cool. However it's his friendship with Juno where his character weaknesses show. The constant mention of band names and movies, saying stuff like "you haven't lived till you've heard ___" so on and so on. Something that Garden State in 2004 was guilty of. I even heard some tuts from the audience. It felt they were trying to hard to seem cool and cmae of as forced and un-needed. I understand that his character trait was a key to a future narrative point but i can't help but feel the constant name dropping came off as well...lame. I'm not also too sure on the overuse of cool lingo and street / teenage talk. Some of the so called hip short hand way of talking comes of annoying after a while. I just wish it tried less to key into the youth.

All in all when its not trying hard, it works, when it was trying hard, it didn't work and let the flow of the film down. As i mentioned i wasn't as impressed with others on page's performance, i liked her character in her tougher emotional moments but some of the sarky / quick witted stuff i wasn't too keen on. However this film has a heart, and these problems are secondary when to be honest what this film does very well is let the core story, a young girl facing a serious choice guide the film, with strong supporting performances from Jennifer Garner, Michael Cera and very strong performances from J.K. Simmons & Allison Janney grounding the film. Jason Bateman's (Mark's) story lets the side down though