reticent magpie

Juno

Went to see it last night with Boss Man, Stephanie & her husband.

It was really entertaining, funny, and was certainly not a typical, formulaic “pregnant teenager” movie. I liked that it showed a sort of middle America family, not one at the extremes of poverty or wealth. The characters were by and large compelling and complete. I am not sure if I can ever like Jennifer Garner, but I felt good for her character at the end of the movie. Justin Bateman’s character was sympathetic and familiar. I won’t spoil the ending for anyone, but it is nice that in this movie a couple of different family paradigms are presented, and in a positive (or at least hopeful) light.

But the dialogue. I’m not sure if I can really say I approve. There is something very cloying about the hyper-precocious teen. Juno herself was hilarious, but absolutely impossible. How does a 16-year-old from lower-middle-class Minnesota know how to order a “Maker’s Mark, up”?  Juno is just too cool, from her hamburger phone, to her taste in music, to her furniture-on-the-lawn prank, to her charmingly dispassionate manner in which she discovers she’s up the stick.

I guess I shouldn’t complain about absolutely impossible dialogue since I usually like David Mamet and I loved the neo-noir-with-teenagers Brick. Ellen Perry is beautiful and talented, but in Juno she is similar to her Hard Candy character in that she is impossibly hip, self-confident, and eloquent.

Stephanie and her husband, who have teenage children, were wondering how they felt about their kids having seen the movie (and evidently loving it). Stephanie just hoped that the movie Juno was as much of a “cautionary whale” as Juno herself was to her classmates.