"Juno" Film Review

Being a 16-year-old girl is tough; being a 16-year-old girl who is pregnant is even tougher. The movie “Juno” conceptualizes the social problems and tendencies that young girls have growing up dealing with the moral dilemma of teen pregnancy. Juno MacGuff, the title character of the film, is too odd and too intelligent to be the stereotypical case of teen pregnancy. With her intellect and poise she takes on the responsibility of overcoming her pregnancy by searching for an adoptive family for her unborn child.

Juno does not treat her pregnancy as a joke, but rather accepts it, often mocking herself and her huge belly. Juno’s friend, Paulie Bleeker, offers to help Juno carry some of her bags, yet she replies sarcastically, “Oh, what’s another ten pounds?” Comments like these solidify Juno’s conception of her own pregnancy, taking it light-heartedly yet realistic. Juno starts off with thoughts of abortion and her parents openly accept what she wants to do, because it is her baby. She calls up the clinic and uses sadistic sarcasm, “Hello, I’d like to procure a hasty abortion,” although this shakes the audience with the blatant reality of the situation at hand, Juno eventually realizes that abortion is not the correct course of action for her to take.

The reality of the situation is this; Juno is not as smart and capable as she would like to believe. She has impulsive unprotected sex with her friend Paulie Bleeker, she decides to have the baby and give it up for adoption, against the advice of her friends and parents. The major problem is that Juno thinks she understands the world better than her elders, but the reality of the situation is that she does not.

Where this movie excels is the stereotypical realities of American social culture in teens and adults. This is largely true with Juno’s adoptive parents, Mark and Vanessa, who are stereotypically heterosexual and domesticated. In this reality Vanessa is uptight and materialistic with her home, belongings, and the habits of her husband; meanwhile, Mark, her husband, is holding on to the glimmer of his youthful “coolness” by watching horror movies and collecting rock music CDs (even trading them with Juno).

This movie empowers young girls confronted with the situation of teen pregnancy. Juno is witty and intelligent, sharp and observant. Yet she falls short of the experience and expertise of her situation. It is hard for her to overcome these problems while rejecting the help of her parents and friends, thinking that she knows best. These tendencies can be the realities of teen girls today. With such a “technological gap” between parents and teens, young girls probably come out feeling more competent than their parents. This may be true with technology, but situations as far as pregnancy, such as the one Juno is faced with, her parents and elders ultimately know what is best for her.

This is where the movie shines. It shows teen girls as competent, functioning members of society, yet it also shows where they are lacking. They are empowered with the knowledge that they have access to, yet they cheat themselves when they do not listen to their elders and heed their advice. Juno serves as a humorous lesson to parents and children, helping each explore the weakness and power of their socialized mentalities.

Comments

Rick Machado said…
As a public speaker on teen pregnancy, I often use this movie to point out how uneducated the general public, including writers like Diablo Cody, are about teen pregnancy. This movie bears very little of the reality behind this problem.

Some innaccuracies and outright lies-
1. less than 2% of the girls give up their bablies for adoption, and no teen gets to screen her adopters.
2. 80% of teen girls are impregnanted by adult men, not their high school boyfriends, average age 21.5. In reality, Mark would be the father.
3. The teen birth rate (TBR) is a function of conditions like poverty, sex abuse, and violent households- none of which is depicted in the movie.
4. The notion thet she and Paulie stay together afterwards is totally absurd- over 80% of all men leave the teen girl to fend for herself, often after 2 births.

Teen pregnancy and the TBR has nothing to do with sex or contraception and even less to do with the teen. It's an adult-created, adult-driven, and adult-perpetuated problem, and it always has been. Teens are forced into social corners by an adult society and pregnancy is one of the responses. It shows a lack of hope, a lack of vision of the future.

To see Juno having a baby, giving it away, and then running off playing songs with Paulie is completely unrealistic and untrue. This is a movie, not real life.

Rick Machado
Public Speaker on Teen Pregnancy
Turnbullet said…
Rick, I agree completely. I thought this movie was completely unrealistic and too "warm and fuzzy," so to speak.
Ana said…
I agree that there is a lot of points about the film that are unrealistic. However, I think the message that the movie is trying to express has good intentions. First of all it provides pregnant teenage girls with an option other than abortion (adoption). Also, pregnant teenage girls can relate to Juno and it might help them deal with their situation.

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