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Due to some self-aware style, I was tainted from the getgo by the hype this one has gotten for the first thirty-or-so minutes, but it ended up actually delivering after all. Again, the first near-half of "Juno," the story of Juno (Ellen Page), a sixteen-year-old smartass who has found herself pregnant and ready in time to give the baby to the most deserving couple (a marvelous Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman).

Of course, things get twisted along the way as relationships find themselves complicating, including a charming one between our heroine and the biological father, Bleeker (Michael Cera) and a few others we won't mention for now. The strength of Juno is its heart, and writer Diablo Cody is deserving of her sudden popularity for that. Hopefully she'll grow out of the need to write lines that may as well just be "Hey, look, I'm a witty and snappy and sarcastically quirky line!" and stick to her great instincts for creating characters that are so easy to care about (after they quit spouting those dumbass lines).

The arc of Juno from a snippy teen into a genuine young girl who can't hide her emotions with plain sarcasm is good and understandable, it'd just be so easier to really appreciate if we didn't have to watch the whole movie itself go through its own similar character arc. Every time there's a moment without dialogue, some hip old Kinks song (or whatever) is shoved into the narrative like stuffing into a dead turkey's ass.

The intro of a character like Bleeker, which is obsessed with quick shots of wardrobe to cool music as Bleeker gets ready for his day as a quirky character, make this all look like some lame Wes Anderson rip-off (and Wes Anderson is doing a fine job of ripping himself off nowadays). All that trash now talked, it's still great to watch the movie finally kinda sorta shake the tunes and quirky lines every fifteen seconds and let itself just be what it is, a sweet story with a good heart that really has nothing to be so ashamed of.

If it looked like it were all on purpose, the flow could've been brilliant, but it's not, and we watch the movie become itself slowly and awkwardly - like a teenager. Nonetheless, by the end of this simple (yet not quite so simple) tale, it takes a real cynic's effort not to smile and buy into the flick's emotion, because it has truly shed its wannabe edge and stopped trying to sell us anything.

Ellen Page is marvelous and backed up by a near-flawless cast, most notably Bateman's ex-rocker who longs for his lost youth and Garner for the motherly yuppie who dreams of a grown-up life. While Page does get stuck with a few redundant moments, she stills pulls this one off with sheer grace, and there's not one trying moment with Garner or Bateman.

In short, "Juno" (like any teenager) needs to be forgiven its flaws and given a chance, as it's worthy as hell when it all comes down to whether or not you're gonna go see it.
 
(four bongs)

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