Little Miss Punshine

Don't worry, I'm still alive. Last week was a hellish week for me at school and right now I'm in the middle of spring break and my mom came down for a visit. So posts will be a bit few and far between. But I did have a bit of time tonight and I wanted to post my review for Juno since it's been over a week since I've seen it and if I wait too much longer, I'll start to forget aspects of the film.

Juno was a film that piqued my interest last fall before it came out. It certainly had a lot of pedigree behind it; stellar cast (including Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, JK Simmons, and Rainn Wilson, just to name a few), an up and coming director (Jason Reitman), and a buzzworthy writer (former stripper Diablo Cody). After seeing the trailer I was sold on the film, but also convinced that this would not click with a mainstream audience. However, it turned out I was wrong and this became the only bonafide hit of the best picture nominess. Now that I have seen it though, I'm a little perplexed as to why it did become a hit.

In many ways, the film is perfect and exactly what I expected it to be. There are several hilarious one-liners strewn throughout the film that are so random and funny that you have to wonder who's clever enough to come up with this stuff. You also have wonderful performances being delivered by almost everyone involved. Everything that I found appealing in the trailer was magnified in the actual film.

Unfortunately, these strengths of the film also end up being a detriment to the film's quality. The first and most glaring problem comes from the witty dialogue. The film seems so deadset on bombarding the audience with pop culture references and sarcasm that it at times takes away from the reality of the story being told. Naturally, Juno (played by Ellen Page) is the greatest abuser of this. And because she is the central character of the film, it poses a big problem. Her use of this type of dialogue prevented me from feeling an emotional connection between her and the characters around her. While her character supposedly goes through some emotional growth (to go along side her expanding belly), I never felt that a change had actually occurred.

This emotional distance is particularly noticeable in her relationship with her baby daddy Paul Bleeker (Cera). On top of Juno's sarcasm keeping him at arm's length throughout most of the film, Cera's character does not get enough screentime for us to truly understand or appreciate their complicated relationship. What ultimately led her to sleep with him? Why does she feel the need to exclude him from all pregnancy matters when he actually seemed willing to particpate? Perhaps if their dynamic had been developed more, I would have felt more about their coming together despite Juno's acid tongue.

Michael Cera is not alone is getting the shaft when it came to screentime. For my personal tastes, I felt like we didn't get to see enough from most of the adults. Most of the actors absolutely shine in their appearances, yet it seems that some of them are merely there as props to allow Juno to spout off more of her bon mots. JK Simmons, in particular, is underutilized as Juno's blue collar father. Perhaps seeing more of him could have given us a better perspective of how Juno became the way she did.

Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner playing a couple planning on adopting Juno's baby actually do get enough screentime to have their characters fleshed out. This is one of the bright spots of the film as their characters seem to be very stereotypical at the beginning, yet as the film unfolds we get to see very different sides to both of them. Had the film just focused on them and Juno, it would have been fine. But because they introduced so many other potentially interesting characters, it was a bit more frustrating.

There is one final aspect that made the film grate on my nerves; the soundtrack. If Juno's dialogue doesn't scream out indie film to you, then the music sure will. Every scene seems to be peppered with these annoying little ditties that think they are clever but instead are just pretentious. Having one song like this during the opening credits would have been tolerable, but they are endlessly played throughout the film.

At the end of the day, I feel so torn on this film. Some aspects of this film I absolutely adored, while other parts really annoyed me. I think because I have such strong emotions for it on both sides of the spectrum, that the film easily warrants my recommendation. It's a film that is great for discussion. I would not be surprised at all if there are some people who absolutely agree with me and other who will love and hate the exact opposite things that I do about this film. I also think that the passion I have for this film is common, which is why it ended up scoring a Best Picture nominee. While it would not have been my pick to win, I can easily accept it's nomination. So go out and see this when you can and then tell me how right or wrong I am about this film. Grade: B+