After months in the theaters, Juno finally hit the big screen of Cubberly Auditorium a few weeks ago, where older newbies came to see what all the hype was about and young fans returned to see the comedy for their second and third times. Juno is a comedy about a sassy sixteen-year-old girl by the name of Juno, played by Ellen Page, who must deal with her unexpected pregnancy. In this review, I would like to praise the movie for its character design, dialogue, and element of variation. Also, because the movie is primarily made for the theaters, the movie-watching experience differs from the visual experience at home, where people control the DVD player. With any movie in the theaters, there is this transient comprehension on part of the audience that forces moviemakers to create a coherent and engaging motion picture to compensate for the fact that viewers don’t have the ability to stop and analyze each scene in detail.
The familiar faces in this movie prepare us for a great comedy. The audience expects certain material from certain faces on screen. When the audience saw “Dwight” from NBC show The Office staring down from the cash register at Juno, people knew what type of outlandish, hilarious things to expect from his mouth. And the audience guessed right, for he was the heckling cashier who ridicules Juno for her positive pregnancy tests. Also, Juno’s baby’s father is played by Michael Cera, yes, the awkward, nerdy protagonist from comedy, Superbad. And yes, he still is the awkward kid in Juno. Physically funny, Cera is that skinny nerd that no one sees as sexually attractive or active. Essentially, people can relate to this character in their high school experiences, thus making Cera’s character as the unanticipated teenage father that much more entertaining. The movie makes great use of these characters by keeping them off screen. In the movie, “Dwight” or Rainn Wilson provides great laughs only in the movie’s opening scenes. Furthermore, the writers portray Cera as this innocent school kid, detached from Juno’s whole baby situation, which suggests Juno’s independence. Cera shares a few scenes with Page, yet his absence throughout the movie makes his presence in the movie’s romantic end more meaningful when Juno and Paulie Bleeker (Cera’s character) reconcile after Juno’s delivery. The casting choice reinforced the comical essence of the film.
Furthermore, the movie’s dialogue stirs the ongoing laughter in the audience. The lines in the movie are memorable because they are well written and cleverly inserted in the conversations between characters. Juno brings the laughs to most of the dialogues with her witty punchlines and funny celebrity references. For instance, while talking to the adoptive parents, Juno claims that the Chinese shoot babies out of t-shirt guns, like the ones that mascots use at basketball games. Furthermore, the timing of jokes is implacable, for they keep the dialogue between characters engaging and the plot progressive. In fact, the real comedy lies in the exchange of insults between characters. Juno gets into an argument with her stepmother, and Juno has the last word with an intelligent insult that helps the audience leave the scene with comfort. The jokes seem to leave serious moments resolved in a comfortable way. The comical material does not necessarily take away from the sobriety of teenage pregnancy. This lighthearted depiction of such a situation makes the movie more appealing because people understand that things rarely play out this way.
Contrast and variation are constituents of a good film. Variation is apparent because the writers weave jokes in serious moments. If the movie were oversaturated with jokes and had no moments of solemnity, Juno would be predictable and boring. Moreover, the overanxious adoptive mother, played by Jennifer Garner, contrasts with the laid-back teenage spirit of Juno. Garner’s character seriously wants to be mother, so she pursues the matter, even at the expense of her marriage. Furthermore, contrast is apparent when one recognizes the difference in socioeconomic status. Juno comes from a middle class family while Garner’s character lives in the costly houses on the other side of town. The difference between the two socioeconomic groups is made evidence by the lighting. For instance, the scenes are so much brighter when Juno is at the house of the adoptive parents, whereas when she’s at home, the lighting is very dim. During scenes in the house of the adoptive parents, the bright light suggests elegance and hope. The lighting also acts as foreshadow, for the audience grows suspicious when Juno is alone with the adoptive father dancing in a dim room. In this scene, the audience learns that the adoptive father wants to divorce his wife and leave the baby. Also, the bright lighting is symbolic in the delivery room, where the audience sees Juno give birth. The movie ends on a nice summer day with Juno and Bleeker, playing guitar on the porch in the sunlight.
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