JUNO

Jason Reitman Written by: Diablo Cody Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Allison Janey, J.K. Simmons, Olivia Thirlby Distributed by Fox Searchlight Film is released in the U.K. on February 8th. Review by Matt Holmes

rating: 4.5

Following on from the success of two of last summer's best comedies, Waitress and Knocked Up, comes Juno - another movie about a young woman who has some difficult choices to make in her life after accidentally becoming pregnant. The movie finally opens nationwide in the U.K. next week and I'm happy to report that it's every bit as good as the amazing response it received across the U.S. over the last couple of months. This absolutely delightful comedy continues a wonderful string of absolutely fantastic films that are playing in U.K. cinema's right now. Directed by Jason Reitman (who brought us the great political satire Thank You For Smoking a couple of years ago) this thankfully 99% cliche-free and emotional comedy follows a 16 year old teenager by the name of Juno MacGuff (played superbly by Ellen Page), who after one night of romance and passion finds herself unwittingly pregnant. Now, rather than taking on the overwhelming task of looking after the baby and continuing her studies at school at such a young age, Juno makes the smart, and rational, decision to give up her baby for free to a couple desperate to start a family. Said couple are, judging by the size of their house, are the very rich and successful Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner, who are so wonderful together I would be quite happy to see them play off each other in every future movie of their careers. They had great chemistry in The Kingdom too come to think of it. It's to the films great credit that it doesn't make out this couple to be a consumerist and greedy people who will flash money at Juno for her baby. Instead they come across as a genuine in their intentions who would bring up the child in the best environment possible. From there comes a couple of twists and turns, including some great scenes between Ellen Page and Jason Bateman who likewise have terrific on-screen chemistry with one another and some really funny set-ups. No need to spoil the movie for you here but I love the direction of the plot and how dark the movie got in places. This one certainly had more in common with Waitress than Knocked Up. Now I have to admit as the film started I was beginning to get worried when every line of dialogue from these characters was the typical Indie nonsense of overly quirky dialogue, with every sentence carrying a buzz word like "honest to blog" (who the fuck says HONEST TO BLOG?) but it doesn't take long for the film to win you over, and you find yourself eating out of the hands of Diablo Cody's excellent screenplay and Page's great performance. It is truly a case of an actress and screenwriter complimenting each other so well, with fantastic direction behind the camera resulting in a one of a kind film. At around 5 feet tall and with youthful looks, Page, who is 20 years old in real life, is able to make herself look a vulnerable and scared 16 year old in one scene but she's so strong of an actress, and her character so grown up, that she could easily pass as being a strong independent 26 year old later on. Page has a wonderful gift for dramatic depth and comedic timing and I'm struggling to think of many films over the past 12 months that have been carried so well by such a young actress. She is well dissevering of her Oscar nomination here. Juno plays the genre game well and never quite fits as a full on comedy, a coming of age self congratulary effort like Rocket Science or dramatic melodrama and is able to therefore just exist as a pure heartwarming film. The supporting cast is strong. J.K. Simmons steals every scene he's in as Juno's father and Jason Bateman continues to show us how great he can be as a supporting character as he makes all his characters look so easy to play. I'm also convinced that Michael Cera doesn't act on screen and is this rather weird kid and "trying really hard to be cool" guy he played so well convincingly in Superbad. Does it sometimes go for the quirky factor in replace of genuine moments of exchanges between characters like Little Miss Sunshine? Are the music choices obvious? Is the film slightly rushed at the end? Absolutely to all of the above but it's so well made and put together that you can't help but fall for this movie.