Juno

So last week I finally saw Juno. While I really enjoyed the film, and I thought all of the central characters did a fantastic job with their roles, I didn't think it was nearly as brilliant as virtually everybody else praised it as.

Overall, I thought it was a really sweet film. A lot of people have accused it of being unrealistic, but I disagree. I certainly don't think the events are out of the realm of possibility (there are parents out there who would unconditionally support their pregnant daughters, and there are teenage girls out there who would opt to put their baby up for adoption instead of getting an abortion).

One thing I did appreciate about the film was that it didn't feel the need to hammer home certain points (which, in general, is a big pet peeve of mine). Some people have expressed disappointment over Juno's apparent lack of emotion regarding her pregnancy and giving up her child, but I liked the fact that she didn't go on some verbal rant about how difficult it would be to give up her baby. Instead, it was expressed through some really understated, subtle ways. I believe that Juno's desire to become attached with the adoptive parents was absolutely her way of coping with her loss. Do you think she honestly cares about whether two virtual strangers get a divorce? Of course not. The only reason she cares about their relationship is because it will, in her mind, impact the way her baby is raised.

However, the one thing that really irked me was the dialogue. For the most part, I HATE the really fake, contrived language that so many writers insist on having their teenage characters speak. For the life of me, I don't understand how anybody can sit through an episode of Gilmore Girls for this reason. Even Dawson's Creek was unbearable at times. I'm sorry, but the vast majority of teenagers do not get into philosophical arguments. And when they do argue, they don't use super intelligent, thesaurus-laden words and phrases.

One might defend these examples by stating that these characters are supposed to be "quirky" or "outcasts." I could accept that, except for the fact that practically every character on those shows speak this way. Like I said, I've never sat through a whole episode of Gilmore Girls, so I can't vouch for that. But I can tell you that Dawson, Pacey, Jen, Jack, and ESPECIALLY Joey all spoke the same way. So they're not quirky. Within the context of the show, it's been established that "this is how teenagers talk."

Juno was much the same way. Within the first ten or so minutes, when Leah says "Honest to blog?!" after Juno reveals that she's pregnant, I cringed. First off, that expression doesn't even make any sense. It came off as a very desperate attempt to try to sound hip and young and pop-culturey. And, again, to some extent, Bleeker, Leah, and Juno (pretty much the only three teenage characters) all spoke the same way, negating that they're just quirky individuals. Michael Cera is absolutely hilarious and he plays those characters so well that you can't really criticize his performance, and Ellen Page is (in my opinion) tremendously likable and charming, so she can get away with it too. But the Leah character (specifically her dialogue) really hurt the film, in my opinion.

In regards to Juno in particular, her slangy way of speaking just felt too forced. She doesn't have to use slang or slip a pop culture reference in every single sentence she says. If a less charismatic actress was portraying the role, I really think that the film would have received very unfavorable reviews. Along with that -- and this echoes my point of a writer unsuccessfully trying to express the way she THINKS teenagers sound -- some of the things she said were just inaccurate. First off, Morgan Freeman wasn't even in The Bone Collector, Denzel Washington was. Secondly, it's "Thundercats HOOOOOO!" not "Thundercats are go!" Some people have defended these errors as Juno being an ignorant teenager. Sorry, I can't accept that. Not when she's able to make a Soupy Sales reference.

Great film? Without a doubt. Worth watching? Absolutely. Brilliant? Not quite.