Juno
I have never loved, my dear reader, but if I did, and if that woman were to go out for an evening with me in celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of our first date, I cannot help but think that I might not be able to take her to a better film than “Juno.”
Juno MacGuff is a high school junior who finds herself most certainly pregnant almost the minute the opening credits start rolling. She speaks with a wry, clever hipness that every high school kid in the world would love to be able to pull off, even in finding herself in the one emotionally devastating situations possible . . . especially finding one’s self in such a situation.
It’s easy to go on about the charm and skill with which Ellen Page makes Juno the sort of movie character it’s easy to fall in love with (as Watson the Fourth does so very often), but if one steps back and look at all of the characters in “Juno,” it quickly becomes apparent that they’re all lovable. J.K. Simmons as Juno’s father. Allison Janney as her step-mother. Jennifer Garner as the baby-longing wannabe mom. Valerie Tian as the cutest anti-abortion protester that ever existed. Director Jason Reitman gives almost every single person in this movie something that tugs at your heartstrings.
The script, by Diablo Cody, is whip-smart and just a joy to listen to. She sets you up for the climax without ever making you fell assured that what you hope for will finally happen. And even with hard, sad events, there must come some joy, which this movie gives up in spades. The best time you’re liable to have in a theater this year.
What great-grandfather Sherlock might have said:
“That is unusual in a young girl.”
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