The movie Juno

Not only did I finally watch the Departed Tuesday night, I followed up by catching Juno last night with mrs. noternie through the brilliant service provided by Fios. I'm on a movie roll!!!

A few minutes into watching Juno, we discussed whether the movie was actually a comedy about teen pregnancy. At the end we decided it really was. Not a farcical or spoofing comedy, but a comedy never the less.

But now I wonder. It's a very funny movie. Much of the humor is unexpected and very blunt. They make jokes about things you wouldn't expect them to in a movie that really does treat the subject seriously. But that's what makes it so real.

Thinking on the way into work this morning, I started leaning toward classifying it as a drama. The jokes aren't the meat of the movie, they're a very well used device to connect the audience to the story. (For contrast consider Ghostbusters, directed by Ivan Reitman, father of Juno director Jason Reitman.)

It's a very, very good movie. Ellen Page, who I've never seen before, played the title character, Juno, a 16-year old that finds herself pregnant. The character and the actress are excellent. The fact that Page can carry the character and keep her from being outshone by the rest of the accomplished cast is amazing. Featured in the movie are JK Simmons as her father (Skoda from Law and Order, Vernon Schillinger from Oz, JJ Jameson from Spiderman trilogy) Allison Janey as the step-mother (she was in Private Parts and West Wing), Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as the adoptive parents. Unknowns Micheal Cera and Olivia Thirlby as Bleeker and Leah also hold their own.

The thing that I liked most about the movie was it's unpredictability. You develop certain feelings about characters, then in some cases they're challenged and changed as things go along. The story is also unpredictable. You figure you'll get the happy ending, but you're not sure what it will be or how you'll get there. It's not just a simple problem with curiosity centering around how the main characters will solve it. Identifying the problems and their solutions is a bit more complex here. And that's good.

If by some chance YOU still haven't seen this movie and you're curious about a movie about teen pregnancy that rides the line between comedy and drama, I highly recommend it.