Don't let her Bambi eyes and button nose fool you, motormouth Juno (Page) enjoys shocking people. The biggest shock is hers when she recognizes that a know-it-all attitude doesn't mask ignorance, a freewheeling banter doesn't cloak insecurity, and her outsider status doesn't sentence her to a lonely life.
Like its heroine, the film's glib - and sometimes sidesplittingly funny - patter at first diverts viewers from its poignant insights. Happily, as Juno grows in experience and maturity, so does the film.
Abandoned by her mother and raised by Dad and Stepmom (J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney, as indescribably funny as they are moving), Juno is the poster girl for the changing American family, where ties of kinship are not necessarily genetic.
For this girl who chooses to carry to term, all but one of her most important relationships are para-familial. Juno's father is there for her, but no less essential are her stepmother, the potential adoptive parents (fragile Jennifer Garner and ironic Jason Bateman) and Bleek (Michael Cera), whom she might archly refer to as the fetus' father. She also has a support best bud, Leah (Olivia Thirlby).
The film spans the three trimesters and four seasons during which Juno evolves from teen misfit to the cusp of adulthood. Reitman carpets the soundtrack with wall-to-wall alt.music, much of it by Kimya Dawson of the Moldy Peaches. That these plaintive tunes are so self-conscious underlines Juno's state-of-mind.
What moved me most about the film was its sympathy for its characters as well as its belief that the time to make up your mind about people is never.
