A fun aspect of being a member of the Screen Actors Guild is that I get to vote for the SAG awards. This year I’m way behind on seeing nominated performances. Seeing Ellen Page’s nominated turn in Juno was a great start on catching up. Page plays a 16-year-old who is pregnant from her first sexual encounter with her best friend Paulie (played very well by Michael Cera). Juno is not a nerd or a jock, but an independent at her Minnesota high school where Paulie runs track and she spouts social commentary that sounds like it comes from the pen of the screenwriter rather than from a high school junior. My only criticism of the movie is that Juno, Juno’s father and stepmother, and the would-be adoptive father of her child, all speak with essentially the same voice, presumably that of first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody. But that didn’t bother me much because it’s a fun fresh voice to listen to, and the actors all do a great job with it.
Juno decides to arrange a private adoption and finds a picture-perfect couple in Mark (Jason Bateman) and Vanessa Loring (Jennifer Garner). Garner gives perhaps her best performance in a supporting role as a woman born to be a mother, but unable to have a child of her own. Juno finds a kindred spirit in Mark. They amazingly have not only the same taste in music, but also the same encyclopedic knowledge of bands from the 70s through the 90s. When she first meets Mark and Vanessa, Juno assures them that if she could just “pop it out” and hand it over, she would, but as “it probably looks like a fish” she’ll keep it for a while so it will get cuter. Page does a convincing job as a girl who, as she puts it, must “deal with issues way beyond her maturity level”. For the most part Juno manages with wit and a tough independent exterior. But there is nothing easy about her situation, and at times it takes its toll. I don’t know if she’ll get my vote yet because I haven’t seen the other nominated actresses, but she’s great fun to watch in Juno.
