[Patrick Sun]

I think I wanted to like this film a little more than I ended up liking it, but Ellen Page is terrific as Juno, the 16-year-old teen who gets pregnant and looks at options of what to do with this unexpected development. I think the screenplay doesn't develop Bleeker too well, he's basically the sperm donor on record and guy friend of Juno, but Juno does quite a bit of growing up during her pregnancy, but in unexpected ways. The conclusion wasn't bad, I just wanted a little more bite to the story. But all in all, Ellen Page's performance anchors the film well (though the screenplay could have been a little tighter in developing Juno, instead of relying on Juno's caustic-ness and sarcastic approach to life at this point in her life, but she's ultimately rootable and likable).

I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B.

[Chris]

I'm surprised this is the only thread and so short when so many of us have picked this as our favorite film of the year.

(While not Patrick, though

I was really touched by how good I thought this film was, but I want to add something: this film is SIGNIFICANTLY better the second time you watch it. And it's going to be something that's hard to explain until you've seen it the first time why that is true.

If you're like me, you're going to find Jennifer Garner's performance (the first time) a little hard to take, kind of out of step with the rest of the film. But when you watch it the second time, and you know what's going to happen, her performance makes incredibly more sense.

Spoiler ahead.

Spoiler:

At first, she came off neurotic, overly so for having such a "cool" husband and she just seemed so tense.. you find out that they've been jilted once before in a potential adoption; but it's the end revelation, that she knows her husband really isn't in the marriage.. and watching it the second time, knowing that in her heart, her character at first sees the child as what she really wants, and what she hopes will make her husband "grow up" make him seem far less "cool" the second time, and makes her neurotic performance far more understandable and endearing.

Juno reminds me as a dead-on, almost verbatim of a real-life person I kno(e)w. I guess that helped how I perceived this film. But the dialog and the performances are top notch. Micheal Cera turns in a fantastic understated performance and they develop such a "real" chemistry that it strikes the right chord for how you'd like to imagine people acting.

Outside of Amy Adam's performance in "Enchanted" this is easily one of the top two female performances of the year by Ellen Page. Absolutely worth the price of admission.

/

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Juno". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an [http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...l#post3294772].



Crawdaddy

[ZacharyTait]

Juno MacGuff is 16 years old. She is smart, witty, and funny. She is also pregnant, the result of a lazy afternoon liaison with her best friend, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). That is the setup for what could have been a cloying, immature teen romance, but instead turned out to be the year’s best comedy. I loved Knocked Up and Superbad, finding both raunchy and sweet, but Juno rises above those two, thanks to its brilliant Oscar-worthy screenplay by Diablo Cody and Oscar-worthy turn by the lead actress, Ellen Page.

When Juno finds out she is pregnant, she doesn’t take the home pregnancy test once, but three time because she can’t believe it herself. After telling Bleeker and Leah (Olivia Thirlby), she then has the unenviable task of telling her dad, Mac (J.K. Simmons) and step mom, Brenda (Allison Janney). If everything leading up to this scene didn’t convince me that I was watching something great in the making, this scene certainly did. Instead of exploding at her and demanding to know who the father is and threatening to kill him, they express amazement that the father could even do something like that.

After deciding not to go through with an abortion, Juno decides to look for adoptive parents and she finds them in the wanted ads next to pets. After meeting with Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark (Jason Bateman), she decides that they will be the parents of her unborn child.

The movie then follows Juno throughout the pregnancy and we get to observe how she and everyone else in her life deal with the unexpected. Juno deals by treating it as no big deal at first, but as the months progress, it dominates her life. Mac and Brenda, in a rarity seen in movies about teenagers, support her and give her advice. Leah and Bleeker support her only in the way that teenagers can. Last, but not least, Vanessa and Mark give her support that is at odds with each other.

J.K Simmons and Allison Janney, two of the best character actors around, are superb as Juno’s parents. At times understanding and other times, simply hilarious, they are a marvel to watch. Michael Cera, fresh off of a stellar turn in Superbad, shines again as Juno’s orange tic tac eating wanna be boyfriend. Olivia Thirlby is terrific as Juno’s friend who is her sounding board throughout her pregnancy. Last, but not least, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner are wonderful as the adoptive parents. Jennifer has a scene about 2/3rds of the way through that should win her an Oscar nomination. It’s about as perfect of a scene I’ve seen all year. You’ll know it when you see it.

Jason Reitman proves that his debut feature, Thank You for Smoking, was no fluke and that the family genes for directing are put to good use, his father being Ivan Reitman, director of the 80’s classic, Ghostbusters.

Above all, however, is the witty, sharp, quippy, sarcastic screenplay by former stripper Diablo Cody and the lovely, delightful, charming and beguiling turn by Ellen Page. After watching the movie, I just wanted to hug her and hang out with her.

To paraphrase Roger Ebert’s famous rant from his movie review of North: “I loved this movie. Loved loved loved loved loved this movie. Loved it.”

4 Stars.