Beauty of ‘Juno’ is its
good message for teen girls

Robyn’s Hood
By Robyn McCloskey

When the movie trailer for Juno came out, I knew I wanted to see this film. It seemed like my kind of movie, a quiet movie, a movie about regular everyday-type people who were just muddling through, trying to figure things out.
No car-chase scenes, no superhero’s far-fetched superpowers, no sorcerers named Harry living in mythical kingdoms. Just a simple movie driven by character development as opposed to a complicated movie driven by the latest special effects. One that offers you something and someone to relate to, a story that compels you to really care about what is going to happen next in the lives of these people.
No impossible missions, no dying hard four times in a row, no evil wizards trying to steal a ring from Hobbits. Just plain old life as lived by plain old people.
Juno was directed by Jason Reitman, a fellow once best known as the son of famed movie producer and director Ivan Reitman, but he is quickly snipping those family ties as he builds his own career. Thank You for Smoking, a satire about a Big Tobacco marketing exec and his pro-smoking spin campaign, is the movie that put Jason on the proverbial Hollywood map.
Juno is the movie that will keep him there.
It’s also the name of the title character, played to cynical, sardonic perfection by the very talented young up-and-comer Ellen Page. Juno is in love with the nerdy Paulie Bleeker, portrayed by Michael Cera, who so convincingly captures Paulie’s innocence that you can’t help but wonder if he’s like that in real life. Paulie is just as in love with Juno, but neither teen can admit it out loud, since neither could believe that the other would feel the same.
Juno gets pregnant by Paulie, and at first thought she thinks that abortion is her only option. Upon her arrival at the clinic, she’s confronted by a demonstrating school classmate hoisting a pro-life sign, and the take-a-number indifference of a bored clinic receptionist soon has Juno rethinking her options.
That’s when she finds an ad placed in the local Penny Saver by a couple looking to adopt. Mark and Vanessa Loring (played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) are your stereotypical yuppies: perfect house, perfect jobs, perfect smiles, even perfect looks as the perfect couple. The only piece missing in their lives is the perfect baby.
The events from that point on make it clear why Juno has received four Oscar nominations, including nods to Reitman, Page and Diablo Cody for her smart screenplay.
I loved this movie on so many different levels, and for so many different reasons. But the aspect I found most interesting was Juno’s decision not to terminate her pregnancy. I recently read an article about how Hollywood is making a lot more movies with an underlying pro-life theme.
It’s not an in-your-face kind of thing; it’s more of a quiet revolution. In the Katherine Heigl comedy Knocked-Up, one of the characters is so offended by the thought of an abortion that he forbids use of the word among his friends. So his very immature peeps decide they will refrain from saying abortion and from then on call it shmushmortion.
Juvenile, I know, but the point is made.
Personally, I think Juno should be shown in high schools across America, if only to show teenage girls that an unplanned pregnancy is not the end of the world and that a shmushmortion is not the only option.
In the end, Juno does figure things out and she makes an unbelievably selfless decision. No, it wasn’t easy, but when all was said and done, her life went on . . . and so did her baby’s.
Now that’s a movie with a happy ending. ••
Robyn McCloskey’s column appears each week in the Northeast Times. She can be reached at crmccloskey@verizon.net