Juno film review

certificate_12A

JUNO

A lot of people are going to fall hard for Juno: as played by Ellen Page she's a sassy, attractive, wisecracking teenager who - to the horror of her liberal parents - finds herself pregnant by the uncoolest kid in town (Michael Cera), a gawky athletic type who is reminiscent of Napoleon Dynamite in looks and social skills.

Jason Reitman's second feature - after the well-received Thank You For Smoking - has had plenty of buzz since it was first shown at festivals. Now it has already taken over $50m at the US box office, a phenomenal achievement for a relatively small production, and it looks like a career-making effort for all concerned. This will particularly apply to Page, already familiar from The X-Men series and Hard Candy - don't be surprised to see her as a major contender come awards season.

Diablo Cody's script is so fresh and honest that a lot of people are likely to tune into this unlikely source of comic material. After the revelation of the pregnancy, Juno decides to put her baby up for adoption and encounters the Lorings, a successful but barren young couple desperate for a child of their own.

Jennifer Garner is wonderful as the anxious mother, who is one of those people over-worries who wants everything to be perfect, while her husband (Jason Bateman) is a laidback guy who writes jingles for a living and misses the wilder days of his rock band youth that Juno represents. The ensuing relationship between the couple and the increasingly pregnant Juno does indeed provide fertile comedic and dramatic territory.

Some may find the script too hip for its own good, and one of the core relationships does strain belief at certain points, but the top notch cast and distinctiveness of the whole thing both have a universal appeal. It looks like being the indie hit of the year the way Little Miss Sunshine was twelve months ago.

Paul Hurley