Just came back from watching Juno–and LOVED it.
The way that the movie handled teenage pregnancy was really different from the way I’ve seen many teen-pregnancy films/tv-shows. The usual story goes three different ways:
1. Pregnant girl tells parents. Parents freak out and subsequently kick girl out.
2. Pregnant girl tells parents, who freak out and then take extreme measures to save girl and family from extended social humiliation, such as pulling girl out of school once she begins to show and then allow her to keep the baby–and then tell everyone that it’s her new baby sister. Involves a sleazy ex-boyfriend who happens to be the father of the baby. Drama ensues.
3. Pregnant girl tells parents, who freak out and then let her have a tearful open adoption, where girl has to deal with sleazy ex-boyfriend and father of the baby. Drama ensues.
Juno was nothing like that. It was more like:
Pregnant girl tells parents, who calmly respect her decision to put the baby up for adoption and help her through the process while reminding her in subtle ways that she should have better judgment next time. Childless family gets baby through closed adoption, girl is happy in the end with her boyfriend.
There were also some other elements in the story as well, such as Juno’s friendship and conflicting feelings for the adoptive father when she visits him regularly due to their similar tastes in music. Another one is Juno’s feelings for her best friend Paul Bleeker and how in the end she decides to admit it. I thought it was heartwarming how Paul went from the last runner on his track team to when he sprinted to Juno’s hospital room when she was having the baby.
Overall, one of the best movies of 2007. Major props to Jason Reitman.
