By Sara Pintilie/entertainment editor
Juno (4.5 stars)
Juno might not seem like much, but the quirky comedy about teenage pregnancy is well worth the hype.
Juno (Ellen Page) finds out she is pregnant. And after being emotionally unable to get an abortion, she decides to give her baby up for adoption.
With her father and stepmother’s help, she locates a family, Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark (Jason Bateman) Loring, desperate to have a child.
The film floats through the next nine months, and the audience watches as Juno tries to deal with her life.
Her smart, witty ways are endearing to Mark and to Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), her longtime friend and the baby’s father. The two give Juno a weird charisma.
The audience falls for her and roots for her, hoping everything works out in the end.
The charming story starts off a little rough with the dialogue a little too clever for its own good. But the film works out the kinks with a sweet and genuine end.
Director Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking) does a good job at fueling the tale with the characters and not the plot.
Page is great, worthy of her Oscar nod, encompassing all of Juno’s quirks and making them her own.
Cera is adorable in this film as the soft-spoken friend/wannabe boyfriend. He is sincere and sweet, a good offset from Page’s hard-edged sarcasm.
Juno is a great dark horse in the Oscar race, and a great movie to check out.
