Juno

Imagine being pregnant at 16. You might not imagine that situation to have many laughs or moments of levity. However, Juno, starring Ellen Page, proved to be the exception to this rule.
We are introduced to Juno as she guzzles Sunny Delight and waxes poetic about a chair in the front yard. We learn that she had sex with her "boyfriend” recently and suspects that she may be pregnant. She walks to the local convenience store where the clerk, played by Rainn Wilson, tell her that she should stop taking pregnancy tests because they are going show that she is pregnant. Juno then goes on to tell those in her life about the baby and deals with the decision of whether or not to abort the baby and the ramifications of that decision.
I was not expecting this movie to be funny. I had not seen many advertisements. I was told by a co-worker that it was funny, but our senses of humor tend to differ. However, the number of laugh out loud moments caught me totally by surprise, from Rainn Wilson’s one scene in the movie to Ellen Page and Michael Cera’s conversations to Allison Janney and her dog obsession I found myself laughing a whole lot.
One person I feel I must give kudos to is Jennifer Garner, who plays the prospective adoptive mother of Juno's baby. Her acting pleasantly surprised me. Her character is someone who is at first seen as extremely controlling but as the film continues you see deeper into her persona and begin to understand where that controlling demeanor stems from. While Jennifer Garner’s character seems to grow as the movie goes on, Jason Bateman, who plays her husband, seems to regress as the movie goes on. He starts out very likable but as you see his character more in the movie his sketchiness definitely comes out.
While I was impressed by those surprising portrayals, the one that blew me away was Ellen Page. Her character in this movie goes through a growing process that is atypical at the age of 16 but she portrays it in a very believable way. Most movies that have the characters going through situations that make them grow up, force their characters to grow up too soon. This is deftly avoided in this movie. I think Ellen Page definitely deserves the nomination for Best Actress. I was stunned by her portrayal of something so sensitive in a comedic way. She is an exquisite actress.
Immediately after the movie, I gave it a rating of 11. However, after thinking about the movie for this review that rating has significantly gone up to a 16. There was excellent acting and the plot was interesting and entertaining. In short this movie had all the ingredients of an excellent movie.