The story is very simple: teenage girl and boy have sex, girl gets pregnant, decides to have the baby and put him/her up for adoption.
The execution is simple and carried out with a light touch by Jason Reitman, the director of Thank You for Smoking, another very good satire of our society that I just recently watched (and haven't posted about yet, oops...)We've seen this type of story before, and often the mother to be ends up changing her mind and keeping her baby, a rallying cry for the anti-abortionists, so I was glad to see that in the end the baby is indeed given up and our heroine goes back to her teenage life, a little changed by the experience maybe, but still a young girl at heart.
My fear was precisely that Juno would end up changing her mind and wanting to keep her baby, which, at her young age, would be, in my opinion, the wrong choice.
The screenplay felt fresh and brisk, almost bubbly, and was very skilled at treating such a controversial topic in a very mature and at the same time innocent and very matter of fact way.
The actors are all really good, starting with the very promising Ellen Page, in the role of Juno, and Michael Cera, who turned out to be a pleasant surprise for me, since I feared that all the recent buzz about him was overrated.
In the supporting roles of Juno's parents, Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons are excellent, while I was left a little cold by Jennifer Garner, who still has to prove to me that she's a good actress, and Jason Bateman. Although maybe the coldness was intentional, given the plot developments...
The soundtrack deserves a mention too, since the songs are both cheerful and gloomy and feel very intimate. Quite a feat to pull off.
Anyway, a good comedy that has just raked in four Academy Award nominations (Best Picture, Director, Actress and Writer), besides winning a bunch of other awards along the way.
Grade: 8.5
No comments:
Post a Comment