Juno
And finally for tonight's reviews, a mix of the serious and comedic
Juno
Starring - Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Allison Janney, JK Simmons
Directed by Jason Reitman
Juno (Ellen Page) is a smart young girl with a reasoanbly streetwise attitude. When she decides to sleep with Bleeker (Michael Cera) she falls into every young girl's nightmare trap of pregnancy. Thankfully she gets more backing than she expects from her dad (JK Simmons) and stepmum (Allison Janney) when she rejects abortion and decides to have the baby and look for adoptive parents.
In the local paper they find Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark. (Jason Bateman) They appear probably a little posh for Juno's taste but they seem to be willing to give the baby a good home in any case so despite her personal msigivings she is happy have have them as the parents. Through the period she strikes up a friendship with Mark, who is into similar music, plays a guitar, into horro films like her. They get on very well to the point where she begins to see more of Mark when Vanessa is no home. At firs Juno thinks Mark is cool while Vanessa seems quite a cold, uptight person.
This all changes when Mark suddenly announces he is going to divorce Vanessa and he is not ready to have the baby. This upsets Juno who wanted the baby to have a real close family, however Mark has gone cold on the baby idea and after a showdown with a distraught Vanessa he decides to go ahead with he divorce, leaving some tough decisions all round. Juno finds that in reality, Vanessa is the one she has more in common with despite Vanessa's weaknesses.
The film is quirkly made and despite the serious subject matter, has a good amount of humour to lighten the load. One citricism I have is there was a fair bit of uneccersary swearing which for me did not add much. Despite this the film is a pleasent watch with a few gentle twists along the way as circumstances continually change, both in Juno's relationships with Bleeker, the adpotive parents and her own parents.
Page leads the way with a strong mix of seriousness and well delivered comedy, Janney is a tour de force in deomonstrating her characters committment to her step-daughter and Garner superbly desplays the emotions and strnghts and weaknesses of a women desperate yet terrified to become a first time mother.
There are a few clever imagery nods to one of Page's previous performances. The relationship with Mark has undertones of the sexual tension which touches close to the little girl-grown man scenario she found herself in in the spine chilling 'Hard Candy.' On finding she was preganant, she also put her head playfully in a noose, bringing memories of the ending to the self same film.
THE MOON OF LIBERTY VERDICT - RATING 'B+' - A very well done peice mixing the serious issue of adoption and relationship break down with a touch of comedy. Some smart imagery, good entertainment, well worth seeing.
