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MetaCritic Score: 81

I was really disappointed I missed Juno in theaters. It got all kinds of great reviews and everyone raved about the witty dialogue. I liked Superbad and was interested to see another performance by Michael Cera. Needless to say, I went into Juno with some pretty high expectations. I left feeling satisfied, but not as impressed as I had hoped.

Juno is story of the fast talking, slightly off beat 16-year-old girl for whom the movie is named, who sleeps with her pseudo-boyfriend and gets pregnant. After some brief thoughts of getting an abortion she decides to have the baby and find a couple who’s looking to adopt. That couple comes in the form of Jason Bateman, a former rocker and current commercial jingle composer, and Jennifer Garner, a baby crazed homemaker. As her pregnancy progresses reality sets in and we are reminded that nothing is truly perfect and, as in most teen pregnancies, some issues will arise.

I’ll start with the film’s weaknesses since they are apparent pretty early on. The first thing that got on my nerves was what was supposed to be one of Juno‘s big strengths, the dialogue. I’m all for movies using the hip lingo that all the kids are using these days, but I don’t want them to shove it down my throat. They crammed so much ridiculous slang that I have never heard anyone use (keep in mind I’m a 21-year-old college student, so if I haven’t heard it then it’s pretty likely that most of the audience hasn’t either). This movie tried so hard to show me how witty it was that the only comparison I can make would be to a really jacked guy trying to show everyone how strong he was by wearing sleeveless t-shirts and lifting stuff every chance he gets. I laughed at the dialogue a few times, but there were a lot of groaners too.

The second thing that bothered me was that we aren’t offered nearly enough time on the Page and Cera’s relationship, and what we were was pretty shallow. A friend reminded me of how much they played this aspect up in the previews, which leads me to believe that they knew that is what people were going to come to the movie wanting to see. Cera also needs to switch his game up a little bit. He acts using almost EXACTLY the same mannerisms as he did during Superbad. The hyper awkward bit, got a little old for me by the end of the movie because it really just seemed like his character from the other movie had just transferred schools.

Thirdly, Jennifer Garner sucks. It’s just a fact, she brings down every movie she’s in and I don’t know why anybody keeps giving her roles. She’s less bad in this than some other movies, but still not good.

As for strengths, Juno had a few really hilarious supporting characters, most notably her father, played by J.K. Simmons who most notably was the newspaper editor in the Spider-Man movies and the psychologist they always brought in on Law & Order, and her step-mother, played by Allison Janney who has had a million small but familiar roles. Simmons does a superb job of mixing comedy with believable paternal compassion and Lanney offers some of the best lines in the entire film. Jason Bateman also does a great job as Garner’s husband and really captures the essence of the character.

While some of the emotional resonance of Juno is lost amidst the cheap attempts to be witty, the film still manages to pull on your heartstrings on several occasions. Page’s character is just naïve enough about the realities of her world and current situation that, when things don’t go the way she would like them to, we are able to empathize with her character.

All-in-all, this review may sound much more negative than I really mean it to be. If you erased my memory but told me how much I was going to enjoy this movie and I had to make the decision on whether or not to rent it again, then Juno is still something I would check out. There is a reason that this film was given so much praise by the critics, even though I believe that a lot of them slightly overstated how great it was. So go ahead and rent Juno if you missed it in theaters and enjoy a fun comedy-drama that is just slightly less successful than its older sibling, Knocked Up.

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