Juno Delivers Stellar Reviews

By Katey Rich

I'm not sure how I missed this, but Juno, the movie I've been telling everyone who will listen to see, comes out today. I can't say I really get the mid-week opening strategy, unless it's to somewhat deflect the impact of opening against Atonement and The Golden Compass. Still, with all the reviews out, it seems worth doing a critical roundup for this indie darling that's just beginning to see its inevitable backlash.

I know I've written about this film before and made my feelings abundantly clear, but it's worth noting that A.O. Scott at The New York Times, as he so often does, expresses what I wasn't nearly eloquent enough to say myself:

"At first her sarcasm is bracing and also a bit jarring � "Hello, I'd like to procure a hasty abortion," she says when she calls a women's health clinic � but as Juno follows her from pregnancy test to delivery room (and hastily retreats from the prospect of abortion), it takes on surprising delicacy and emotional depth. The snappy one-liners are a brilliant distraction, Ms. Cody's way of clearing your throat for the lump you're likely to find there in the movie's last scenes.

The first time I saw Juno, I was shocked to find myself tearing up at the end, since I'd spent the first 15 minutes or so gnashing my teeth and checking my watch. The passive-aggressive pseudo-folk songs, the self-consciously clever dialogue, the generic, instantly mockable suburban setting � if you can find Sundance on a map, you'll swear you've been here before.

But Juno (which played at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals, not the one in Park City, Utah) respects the idiosyncrasies of its characters rather than exaggerating them or holding them up for ridicule. And like Juno herself, the film outgrows its own mannerisms and defenses, evolving from a coy, knowing farce into a heartfelt, serious comedy."

Sorry for the extra-long quote; that's just the most succinct and spot-on summation of why the film is precious, quirky and smart without being completely overbearing. I also had completely forgotten how the first 10 minutes or so of the film are jarring, even the second time around; Rainn Wilson, as welcome as he is, is a bit too clever as the pharmacist who verbally jousts with Juno in the first scene. Luckily with such good buzz, most viewers aren't going to walk out of it after 15 minutes, and they'll be duly rewarded for it.

Though the inevitable naysayers are beginning to cry foul on Juno's charms, most critics are still enthralled. "The devil in Cody's script lets in wit, anger, distress and the pain of romantic longing," writes Rolling Stone's Peter Travers. Juno is more than a few smiles � it makes you laugh deeply." Salon.com sees past the quirkiness: "Instead of hiding these [themes] behind a scrim of quotation marks, Reitman, Cody and their actors put their hearts on their sleeves: Their movie is intimate and inclusive, the exact opposite of groovier-than-thou." And the Village Voice gives a shout-out to Diablo Cody's somewhat-obscenely titled blog-- "which, surprisingly, has very little to do with baby kittens"-- and says for the movie, "Once it works its way through the first-timer's lookatme! snark, Juno evolves into a thing of beauty and grace. By the end, it's unexpectedly moving without ever once trolling for crocodile tears. It's a sneak attack."

And, for the last time, my two cents from Film Journal, in something of a run-on sentence: "In short, Juno is almost too unique for description, a tour-de-force comedy with tremendous heart, a crackling screenplay aided by standout performances across the board, and a shift in tone from director Jason Reitman's debut, Thank You for Smoking, that still maintains that earlier film's devilish intelligence."

Don't miss this one.