Jason Reitman's Juno

I was afraid Juno could end with us not knowing whether or not Juno will give the baby  up for adoption. Those are the kinds of movies I don't like, because it seems to me that the writer doesn't have enough courage to decide what is going to happen and than just leaves it up to the audience to come up with an ending they like. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that wasn't the case with Juno. I had imagined an ending where Juno and Vanessa stand next to the baby and then the end. Nope. Vanessa adopts Juno's kid. 

I did quite enjoy Juno, but i have some serious problems with it. One is glamorizing teen pregnancy. Come on. It's as if a teen gets pregnant, decides to have the baby and everything else just falls into piece. She goes to school until the very day she gives birth. Yeah, right. And the biggest discomfort of her pregnancy is some morning sickness.

I didn't like the character of Juno. She's spoiled and doesn't have any manners. I know she's supposed to be quirky and unusual, but she acts bratty for most of the time. She wears Converse shoes, listens to obscure music ad watches ancient horror movies. Hurrah! We've got ourselves a unique personality! Imagine you were to meet a Juno. Just how many people would think she was a nice person? And how many would just want to punch her in the face? One more thing I didn't like about her is the way she acts towards her pregnancy. As if it were no big deal. Sure, her entire life doesn't have to end just because she got pregnant at sixteen, but that doesn't mean you get to act like a brat.   

The part of the movie I enjoyed the most was watching J K Simmons, a former neo-Nazi prisoner from Oz, play a loving and a gentle father. But, hey, he's an actor, so that's how things are supposed to work.

The most interesting relationship in Juno is the one between Mark and Vanessa. But we don't get to see anything about them, because, you know, Juno is the title character and we're just too busy watching her act like a brat to even notice the drama going on in these people's lives. Vanessa wants to be a mother, Mark doesn't feel ready to be a father and they're stuck in a situation that can't get resolved without someone getting hurt.

I had fun watching Juno, but I didn't get the reason for all the praise. Just another low budget movie I'll soon forget about.