Juno Review

Two months, two starmaking performances.

You may remember me raving about Amy Adams' work in "Enchanted", and now we've got Ellen Page breaking out for very different reasons. While Adams basically brought a beloved archetype — a Disney princess — to life with boundless charm and without a hint of irony, Page (with a big-time assist from first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody) has created a mostly original character.

Page is Juno MacGuff, a 16-year-old who gets pregnant after a one-time sexual encounter with her best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). Instead of having an abortion, and being smart enough to know she's not ready to be a mom, Juno decides to give her baby to Vanessa and Mark (Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman), a yuppie couple who've had trouble conceiving.

During the first 20 minutes, with its cutesy animated opening credits sequence, the movie was a bit too precious and "hey, look at me, I'm a cool indie" for its own good. Cody not only wrote Juno as one of those highly articulate characters none of us really know in real life, but, particularly in an early scene with Rainn Wilson from "The Office", it actually seemed like the characters were speaking in code.

I still haven't decided whether I just got used to the rhythm of the dialogue or Cody and director Jason Reitman ("Thank You For Smoking") noticeably toned things down (I think it's probably the latter), but this became much less of an issue as the story took off. Also, there really ARE people this intelligent who talk this way.

Mostly though, that stuff didn't bother me because the movie's great qualities came to life.

Chief among them is how virtually every character is eventually presented in an intelligent and humane way so that, while we may not sympathize with, we can understand their actions. Also, for a movie about an unplanned teen pregnancy, this is done in a very funny way.

Page is great as Juno and conveys the character's funny, smart-alecky side just as well as she handles the more serious dramatic moments (not every actress can do both). The diminutive 20-year-old powerhouse commands every scene she's in without overdoing it and, refreshingly, actually looks like a teenager (unlike all those stars in their late 20's trying to pass themselves off as high school kids).

The rest of the cast is just as good for the most part. My favorite may have been Jennifer Garner, also showing off impressive comedic and dramatic skills, as a character that looked like a caricature, but ended up having great depth. I also liked J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney as Juno's dad and stepmom. These great actors each get one scene to show off what they can do.

I'm a big-time "Arrested Development" fan, so I thoroughly enjoyed Bateman and Cera's work in this movie. Still, I have to agree with my girl Erica's assessment 100% in that both of these two have basically been giving the same performance in everything they do since the show ended. This is especially true of Cera, who repeats his awkward, sensitive guy tics. Bateman, at least, I thought dug a bit deeper to explore a guy hanging on to something that's gone and might not be quite as ready to be a parent as he appears.

In the end, the movie certainly has some quirky touches (randomly odd characters who talk funny, the repeated use of Bleeker's cross country team) that threaten to make it painfully indie. All of that is more than salvaged by a heartfelt script and terrific performances from an incredibly talented cast led by Page in one of the best comedies of the year.

Juno...A-