Juno (2007)

Here's the thing about Juno: I don't dislike it, exactly. I just don't think it's anywhere near as sharp or original as the wave of critical adoration around its release suggested. Watching it now, it feels like a film that was perfectly calibrated to be praised in 2007 and hasn't aged especially gracefully since.

The premise, a teenage girl navigating an unplanned pregnancy with wit and pluck, has genuine potential. And to be fair, there's warmth in there. It's not a cold or cynical film. But the screenplay is so relentlessly pleased with itself that it kept pulling me out of the story. The dialogue doesn't sound like how people talk. It sounds like how a screenwriter imagines a brilliantly precocious teenager talks, every line buffed and polished until it gleams with indie credibility. There's a certain kind of early-to-mid 2000s indie quirk that has dated badly, and Juno is, unfortunately, a prime exhibit.

Elliot Page, then credited as Ellen, does what they can with the material, and honestly, the performance is decent. There's real commitment there, and moments where genuine emotion breaks through the wall of clever-clever dialogue. The supporting cast is solid across the board too. But even the best performances can only carry you so far when the script keeps getting in the way of the characters actually feeling like people.

What bothers me most is that the film clearly has something it wants to say about growing up, about responsibility, about the messiness of relationships between people at very different life stages. Those ideas are in there. But every time the film gets close to something genuinely moving, it retreats behind another wisecrack or another needle-drop from its very carefully curated soundtrack. It mistakes quirkiness for depth, and that's a problem that no amount of charm can fully paper over. If you want coming-of-age work that actually commits to the uncomfortable truth of adolescence, there are far braver films out there.

I'll grant it this: the film's heart is in the right place. It's not trying to be mean or exploitative. The relationship at the centre of the adoption storyline has some genuinely affecting moments, and there are flickers of real tenderness scattered throughout. So it's not a write-off. It's just a film that consistently settles for being clever when it could have been honest, and settles for being likeable when it could have been great.

Two stars. Fine, and nothing more. I can see why people took to it at the time, but I watched it waiting to be won over, and the moment never quite arrived.

Rating: ★★  | Year: 2007  | Watched: 2025-04-15

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