Juno

There is a moment in Juno when the tall Savannah grass parts and the movie’s wild vision becomes clear. It is a scene in which Juno shares a dance with Mark Loring, the room itself cloistered away with his junk in his otherwise neat and opulent home. As Mark begins to relive his early years, he confides in Juno that he is going to leave his wife Vanessa (Jennifer Garner), a woman with whom he can’t even connect any longer on the level that he has connected with Juno through her unexpected and unwanted pregnancy. Vanessa disrespects Mark’s diverging values throughout the film. The pacing of the movie initially sets Mark up as the stilted and faithful husband, which makes it more poignant as he unwinds before Juno, and the irony is that she rebuffs him as he reveals himself to be yet another flawed man in a flawed marriage.

The scene that follows downstairs between Vanessa and Mark is especially uncomfortable and sweltering, and I think that it was made all the more potent by the warning of Juno’s stepmother Bren about corresponding with an older man alone. The warning didn’t have any other relevance but to enhance the distress throughout that interaction, but the magic here is that it makes the scene absolutely gripping.

Juno reunites Arrested Development alums Jason Bateman and Michael Cera (which coincidentally I had finished that very morning), though neither of them share a scene together. Cera’s Paulie Bleeker, the father of Juno’s child, seems to arise from the same ancestral home as his AD character George Michael. Both are reticent, cautious youth, and Cera himself is skilled at expression while showing little. Ellen Page delivers a grounded performance as Juno, the incontinent, tangy teen, knowledgeable in the ways of the world but lacking seasoned experience.

Most of the beginning acts rely on Juno’s character, who I didn’t necessarily find myself aligned with, as several of her scenes were awkward and socially unacceptable, especially when she is juxtaposed with the tidy, picture perfect couple of Mark and Vanessa for the first time. But I enjoyed watching her character from afar because there are no swathes of truth. She is neither hero nor villain. She is a teen under the umbrella of pregnancy. Bren had obviously taught her how to stand up for herself and speak her mind. Both Paulie and Juno appear as self aware characters that work well together, and as Juno finds herself questioning whether a true relationship can ever work, she eventually comes to realize that it is her odd relationship with Paulie that matters.

Director Jason Reitman made the comment in reference to Juno’s pregnancy that her parents (J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney) were more heartbroken than angry, and I think that this speaks to another flawed but honest relationship. Reitman himself imbues the movie with simple shots. There is some repetition, for instance, the cross country and track teams during each of the four seasons, and three times Juno moves against the heady confluence of a crowd.

I don’t feel that the script is as strong as No Country for Old Men or There Will Be Blood, but I think that Diablo Cody’s freshman effort deserved Best Original Screenplay. The style is obviously a granitic obstacle for some, but I think that Juno fulfills the style well. I believe that Juno doesn’t understand the implications of creating life. This is a girl for whom walking out of an abortion clinic is as cavalier as walking in. And she displays no sentimentality as she talks about extracting the child through birth with the cold calculations of removing a wart. She understands the world but not its intricacies. Like any teenager she is conflicted between how simple the world should be and how complex and boundary ridden it really is. I think that her development in this regard is subtle, but of course she puts on an abrasive front. I am not necessarily concerned with that because it is how she chooses to present herself. The movie mixes it in with dexterity once the film begins to take flight, and her presentation isn’t as important as how she copes with her surroundings.