Writer’s Debut in ‘Juno’ is Unreally Funny

By Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Dec. 20–Detractors of "Juno" complain that 16-year-olds don’t talk with the dry, witty, insightful humor of the girl who gets pregnant, decides to have the baby and makes a pact with a married couple who aren’t ready to be parents either.

This is true.

It’s also true that cowardly British knights didn’t speak with the semi-poetic bravura of Sir John Falstaff, that TV show writers didn’t have the fluent knack for one-liners of the cast from "The Dick Van Dyke Show," and that the rubes on "My Name is Earl" don’t sound like any you’d meet driving a pickup truck around a swap meet. Comedy comes from an exaggeration of reality, not reality itself — and on that score, Diablo Cody’s first screenplay gets high marks.

Ellen Page, who terrified predator Patrick Wilson in "Hard Candy," turns on the charm in the title role. She’s named for the vengeful, powerful goddess who was Jupiter’s wife, but the name is ironic: Juno MacGuff is even-tempered, pragmatic, not a bit angry about her circumstances.

She initiated sex with mutual virgin Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera, reprising his timid "Superbad" high-schooler). So she finds a childless couple, Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), and offers her baby. Everyone else, from best friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby) to stepmom Bren (Alison Janney), will simply have to go along.

Director Jason Reitman adopts a gentler tone for his second film than for the stingingly funny "Thank You For Smoking." There’s never a real danger that Juno’s health will be threatened, she’ll drop out of school or her father (J.K. Simmons) will cast her away. "Did you see it coming when she sat us down here?" he asks after the big announcement. "Yeah-uh," Bren replies mockingly. "But I was hoping she was expelled or into hard drugs."

The whole mood is reassuring, perhaps a shade coy. (The wispy, half-whispered songs that slide onto the soundtrack are too, too precious.) So when Mark takes an unusual interest in Juno, we know he’s not creepy; he’s just lazy and immature and a little bored with his baby-fixated wife.

Though the mood is untroubling, Cody and Reitman take time to explore Juno’s anxieties about attractiveness and self-worth. We get no firm idea why she falls for the passive, vapidly pleasant Paulie, but we go away knowing she’s a complicated, sensitive person for any age. Nor does the script judge her sexual behavior, though it’s clear that the outcome is unfortunate.

All the actors do well enough, but Page (who’ll be 21 in February) has a unique blend of a girl’s acute sensitivity and a woman’s self-awareness. It’ll be a pleasure to watch this Canadian chameleon over the next few decades.

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