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Shelf Beauties |
Juno Ellen Page stars
as Juno MacGuff – a 16-year old pregnant It looks too
good to be true when she meets the financially successful Vanessa
(Jennifer
Garner) and Mark (Jason Bateman), but will everyone still want to go
through
with the adoption when the baby is born?
What about the father’s reaction?
Lots of people
will say Juno is this year’s Little Miss Sunshine, but that
is because the two are similarly amazing. Writer
Diablo Cody has
filled Juno with tart dialogue that entertains the audience, and makes
us
laugh, but always gives us an insight into the character speaking it
and the
pain they are going through. It’s
hard
to find laughs in the middle of such a serious situation, but Cody has
a
wonderful way of exploring family, marriage, the difficulties of
growing up,
and the challenge of being an adult with amazingly descriptive dialogue
that
feels like real conversations you could hear while eavesdropping on the
people
in your neighborhood. She
and director
Jason Reitman have created the right kind of quirky movie, which feels
natural,
and comes from the rhythm and vibe of the movie instead of desperate
attempts
to be quirky. Even
when you are laughing
out loud, Juno never loses its heart and soul in the process. The cast also is
one of the best you will find in any movie this year.
Page is one of the best young actresses to
come along in a few decades and is more amazing without dialogue than
she is
with it. She’ll
break your heart with Juno’s
pained reaction to her father’s comments or the look in her
eyes when she tries
to make a joke to get out of an uncomfortable situation. Bateman is better than
ever, but it’s Garner
who is surprisingly impressive as we see her bring Vanessa’s
desperation for
motherhood to the screen. Juno is one of
the best movies of 2007. See
it as soon
as you can. Juno is rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexual content and language.
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