Juno Review

Hilarious, touching and engaging this is a comedy about a very serious matter that hits all the right notes, with a brilliant script, brilliant cast and amazing performances from the lead character played by Ellen Page and the love interest played by Michael Cera.

The script is by (fellow blog writer) Diablo Cody and it’s just superb. The dialogue between Juno’s character and the rest of the cast is razor sharp, quirky and always hilarious. The film is funny throughout, with the soundtrack adding yet another layer of enjoyment to the film; I’ll come back to the soundtrack a little later.

Ellen Page is perfect for the role of Juno. Having seen her in Xmen-3 and Hard Candy, the later which I highly recommend it’s safe to say that Ellen page is a diverse actress with a very bright future indeed. Despite the fact she plays the 16 year old witty wisecracking Juno, she is in fact 22. The rest of the cast is magnificent Michael Cera plays the somewhat bumbling Paulie Bleeker, who still at 16 has a car for a bed; this pretty much sums up his character. Also involved are Jennifer Garner of Alias fame and Jason Bateman from Arrested Development who play the couple who are desperately seeking to adopt.

The film tells the story of how Juno becomes pregnant after she and Paulie lose their virginity to one another. Having decided against having an abortion after visiting the clinic and being confronted with a friend from college she decides that seeking to adopt would be the best course of action. Having found the perfect couple in classifieds in the paper, the adoption process is initiated. The film tells the story of the ups and downs of this process the struggles Juno faces and ultimately giving birth to the child.I didn’t want to ruin anything so I kept the outline short and sweet. I also won’t put any quotes from the film because I A, don’t want to ruin them and B, there are just too many to chose from.

Ellen Page’s quite frankly beautiful performance is what drives this movie, and if you’re not currently a fan you will be after you watch this film. The splendid script is also one of my favourite aspects of the film; it is witty, funny and clever. Finally the soundtrack as mentioned before is brilliant. It includes songs by Kimya Dawson, The Moldy Peaches, velvet Underground and Sonic Youth. Trust me it’s worth watching the film just for the soundtrack; the lyrics are so appropriate, you’d be forgiven for thinking that some of the songs written up to thirty years ago were in fact written for this film.Overall the film is heart warming and humorous. It does however seem to make the idea of becoming pregnant less of serious matter than it clearly is, and according to my mother there has been spate of girls becoming pregnant (apparently thirty, but My mother likes to exaggerate) in the same American high school all because of this film. Weird note to end on but somewhat appropriate to this quirky Movie.

8.5/10

Related Films

Superbad- Stars Michael Cera, Hilarious.

Hard Candy - Stars Ellen Page, Gripping and Brutal.

External Links

Juno DVD

Juno OST