Juno

Diablo Cody makes an admirably heartfelt and genuinely funny screenwriting debut with JUNO, a tween pregnancy comedy that masterfully walks the line between self-parody and real emotion. Directed by THANK YOU FOR SMOKING’s Jason Reitman and featuring some of the most compelling (and most surprising) performances of the year, the film manages to be cute without cloying and dramatic without plodding.

It all starts with a chair. When a sarcastic and laid-back 16-year-old (Juno, played by Ellen Page) discovers she’s pregnant, her first thought is to get an abortion. Yet when she finds herself unable to through with the operation because, among other things, the clinic smells like a dentist’s office, she decides to do the decent thing: give the baby up for adoption. Enter Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), the upper-middle-class yuppie couple who want to adopt but have had bad past experiences. And as Juno’s pregnancy develops, she finds herself thinking more and more about the baby’s father, a dorky track runner (Michael Cera) with an unusual fondness for Tic Tacs.

The film’s strength lies in its performances, and most importantly Page’s portrayal of the titular character. Juno is sarcastic but not unlikable; she fully accepts her faults and mistakes, and the viewer cannot help but do the same. She is a modern teen in every way; ready to dismiss the words of her elders with a disinterested roll of the eyes. Yet she has a maturity that develops along with the baby. As Juno gains a more worldly wise view of those around her, she becomes all the more compelling. Page has put in noteworthy work in lesser films (HARD CANDY, X-MEN 3), but it is JUNO that people will remember her for. But Page does not put in the only memorable performance; solid work is done by all, and there isn’t a weak link in the cast.

Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner especially come as a surprise. As the adoptive parents-to-be, both delve into previously untapped area in their ranges. While Bateman still relies on his charming, staring-in-disbelief comedic timing, his more dramatic scenes display an uncertainty and reluctance that resonates far past the words he speaks. Garner is a revelation here. The dramatic work she’s done on ALIAS only hints at the multilayered performance she gives her. Her desperation that shows even through her strict reticence is often heartbreaking; the flaws in her character are apparent, yet her strive for the end goal makes all her fussing filled with fright instead of superficiality.

Cody’s smart and snappy script successfully balances comedy and drama. At first insistent on teen slang (almost annoyingly so), the true measure of Cody’s accomplishment becomes apparent later in the film, when the drama rings truer than most comedies of its type. Yet it never becomes bogged down in the dramatics; by the time it turns away from total comedy, the viewer is already too invested in the characters to be lost. But Cody and Reitman realize how important comedy is in such serious situations. Like Juno herself, they never let things get too serious. There’s always something to laugh at just around the corner.

***1/2/****