Ellen Page, Michael Cera, J.K. Simmons, Allison Janney. An unplanned pregnancy propels a confident, charming teen into one of life's many detours, where she sets her sights on her ideal adoptive parents: an affluent couple longing to adopt their first child. 2007/color/92 min/PG-13.
Somewhere between the sharp satire of
Election and the rich human comedy of
You Can Count On Me lies
Juno, a sardonic but ultimately compassionate story of a pregnant teenage girl who wants to give her baby up for adoption. Social misfit Juno (Ellen Page,
Hard Candy,
X-Men: The Last Stand) protects herself with a caustic wit, but when she gets pregnant by her friend Paulie (Michael Cera,
Superbad), Juno finds herself unwilling to terminate the pregnancy. When she chooses a couple who place a classified ad looking to adopt, Juno gets drawn further into their lives than she anticipated. But
Juno is much more than its plot; the stylized dialogue (by screenwriter Diablo Cody) seems forced at first, but soon creates a richly textured world, greatly aided by superb performances by Page, Cera, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the prospective parents, and J.K. Simmons (
Spider-Man) and Allison Janney as Juno's father and stepmother. Director Jason Reitman (
Thank You For Smoking) deftly keeps the movie from slipping into easy, shallow sarcasm or foundering in sentimentality. The result is smarter and funnier than you might expect from the subject matter, and warmer and more touching than you might expect from the cocky attitude. Page's performance is deceptively simple; she never asks the audience to love her, yet she effortlessly carries a movie in which she's in almost every scene. That's star power. --
Bret Fetzer Get to Know Juno's Cast
Ellen Page (Juno MacGuff) | 
Michael Cera (Paulie Bleeker) | 
Jennifer Garner (Vanessa Loring) |
Jason Bateman (Mark Loring) | 
Allison Janney (Bren MacGuff) | 
J.K. Simmons (Mac MacGuff) |
Beyond Juno 
Juno Soundtrack | 
More from Screenwriter Diablo Cody | 
More from Fox |
Stills from Juno 
