FLICKS Review: Juno

On Sunday night, April 20, I attended the Stanford FLICKS screening of “Juno.” Unaware of what genre or quality movie I was about to see (I only knew it involved a pregnancy), I was pleasantly surprised to find a comedy—and with well-thought out, witty humor, not the brainless kind many other recent movies have featured. Every several minutes the audience roared with laughter, evidence to the success of this comic teenage tale.

--warning: plot spoiler—

Juno is the name of the main character, a sixteen year-old girl in high school who finds out she is pregnant from the onset of the movie. After consulting with her friend, Juno agrees to get an abortion, but later backs out of her decision when she gets irritated by the environment in Women Now (the abortion clinic) while sitting in the waiting room (though she really backs out due to guilt). Juno decides instead to give her baby up for adoption to a couple, Vanessa and Mark, that appears perfect (though nobody is fooled). Throughout the arrangement, Juno gets to know Mark and finds out they share a love for music and horror movies. Meanwhile, Juno’s relationship with Paulie, her best friend and the father of her baby, complicates. When Mark suddenly tells Juno he plans to divorce Vanessa, Juno’s idealistic vision of love and Vanessa’s hope of being a mother come crashing down. However, since Hollywood needs its happy ending, Juno agrees to still give her baby to Vanessa, and in the end Juno falls in love with Paulie.

The plot structure is somewhat traditional, but it still had some unexpected turns and twists. Though it was evident from the beginning that Mark and Vanessa had no chemistry, their divorce was unforeseen. It was also surprising to find that the divorce didn’t interfere with the adoption, and, in a sense, I didn’t expect Juno and Paulie to get together in the end.

There’s a fair amount of foreshadowing along the way, though it ended up being misleading. From Juno and Mark’s first connection when they “jam” on the guitar together in Mark’s room, it becomes evident that they have the potential to ignite some kind of romance, even with their age difference. This foreshadowing is confirmed when Juno and Mark start spending a lot of time together when Vanessa is not home, especially when they start to slow dance to Mark’s high school prom song. Up to the moment before Mark confessed his plans for his divorce, I was convinced Juno and Mark were going to kiss and either end up together or cut off their romance before it ruins both their lives (a similar situation to that in “Spanglish”). When this did not happen and no romantic aspect to the relationship was acknowledged, I was thoroughly disappointed. Even more, Mark’s situation was never resolved in the story; after Mark and Vanessa divorced Mark’s character was dropped, leaving the audience unsatisfied.

Though there were some aspects of the plot I found engaging in themselves, “Juno” would have been a poor movie if not for its comic value. This is where the success lay. There were countless hilarious one-liners scattered throughout the movie, as well as some intrinsic humor and irony in the storyline. For example, a cheerleader talking to an elder teacher she fancied remarked something like “You like Woody Allen? I do too!” Juno exclaimed that in China they “give away babies like free ipods.” And when Juno told Paulie she loved him because he’s the coolest person she’s ever met and he doesn’t even have to try, Paulie responded, “I try really hard, actually.” Overall, “Juno” could be rated two thumbs up for humor, and half a thumb up for plot. But since it’s trading mostly on its humor, Juno is definitely a great catch. And the song at the end will stay in your head for at least a week, rendering the movie (or at least the song) unforgettable.

-Dominique Y