January 02, 2008

Juno

I Believe Unwanted Children are Our Future

It’s true: ten or so minutes into Juno, I was ready to walk out. Juno (Ellen Page) is a teenager who is impregnated by her nerdy trackstar buddy Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera); she finds Mark and Vanessa Loring, a nice-looking young couple (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) who want to adopt the baby once it’s born, allowing her to avoid her untimely bout with motherhood and get back to her life— you know, high school.

From reading reviews, I knew that the film was being lauded as hilarious, tender, sharp-witted and, disturbingly, hip... and that the latter accolade was leading some critics to accuse the movie of being too clever for its own good. I was prepared, then, but not prepared enough for the barrage of fast-flying teenagerisms which dart back and forth across the first act of the movie, practically obscuring the introduction of the characters and the plot. In a hard-to-watch cameo, Rainn Wilson, perhaps bored with nothing to do now that the writers’ strike has shut down The Office and the loveably obnoxious character he plays, is obnoxious and entirely unloveable as a cashier who sells Juno a pregnancy test, which she then uses in the store bathroom. “What’s the verdict, Fertile Myrtle?” he asks, as she attempts to shake the ominous plus sign into oblivion. “That ain’t no Etch-A-Sketch, homeskillet,” he continues. “That’s one doodle that can’t be undid.” I prayed that the movie wouldn’t be filled with dialogue like this; watching just a few minutes of it felt like wading through a soup of cool. It was not a feeling I liked. To my dismay, Juno’s ensuing phone conversation with a friend included expressions like “fo’ shizz,” and when she decides to “nip her problem in the bud,” she calls a clinic and says she’s looking for “a hasty abortion.” Call me a square, but a character’s banter prowess is not what wins her over for me. In fact, it often does the opposite. By the time the pre-abortion phone call rolled around, my thoughts were vocalizing their distate in Junospeak: Somebody, tell this little Gal Friday to shut her cakehole.

And now for the good news. It got better. Much, much better. A glimmer of light appeared through the introduction of Juno’s father and stepmother, played by J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney. Coming from them, the witty banter was earned; not just a mouthpiece for teen angst, but an indication of straightforward, if bemused, parenting.

The movie continues to grow up as Juno has to, a process which picks up speed through her relationship with the surrogate parents. The Lorings seem, on the surface, like eager yuppies, but Juno really begins to open itself up as it allows the young couple to reveal their true selves: Mark, a failed rock star smiling his way through a midlife crisis, develops an innocent but precariously close relationship with Juno. His desperation in clinging to his youth is a distortion of all that youthful banter, allowed to run free for too many years. The biggest surprise, and the most touching element in the movie, is Vanessa, who transforms from a flat, domestic foil for Mark to a trapped, loving woman whose desire to be a mother is obscured by her husband’s selfishness.

Once the feel-good floodgates were opened, all kinds of good stuff poured out. Juno learns a thing or two— when she returns from visiting the Lorings and their failing marriage and tells her father she’s been “dealing with things way above my maturity level,” I wanted to hug her, cumbersome tummy and all. Talk about a much-needed epiphany.

Lastly, there’s Michael Cera. As Juno’s platonic best friend who impregnates her when they have sex, as it’s described multiple times, out of boredom, Cera is in all his lanky, insecure glory. In TV’s Arrested Development, Cera is meek and stammering; in Superbad, behind the foulmouthed veneer, he’s the same sweet teenager. In Juno, there’s a maturity we haven’t seen before, which comes out the most strongly in a scene after Juno gives birth, when he lies behind her and holds her silently. In that moment, he’s the most grown-up character in the movie.

I wonder if the gratingly hip beginning wasn’t the intention of the director, Jason Reitman. Maybe the opening scenes of carefree Juno were what made the subsequent scenes of her growing up, through the Lorings and the pure of heart Paulie Bleeker, so powerful. Either way, I left the theater on time, feeling appreciative and satisfied. Like a dream, the poignant parts stuck with me and the rest— almost— faded away.