Go see Juno!

I used to see just about every movie ever released. I especially saw the "Oscar-worthy" ones, so I could look like an artiste with my fellow drama geeks. Now I have five children, and I no longer have the patience to watch movies I don't really like just so I can say I saw them. When a movie comes out that attracts a lot of attention because it's "important" or "groundbreaking," I usually give it a miss. Mrs. Cornell, however, had heard great things about Juno, and on her recommendation, we went and saw it last night.

I cannot remember a funnier movie, especially one that's as morally centered and moving as this one was.

Every single line in this thing brought the house down. It was hard to hear because the audience was laughing so hard. There probably are funnier movies, but every laugh in this picture was character-driven. When the thing kicks into gear in the second act, you're startled by how moving it is, because you've been so busy busting a gut that you don't realize how much you've come to care about these people. And, for the first time in a long time, I was watching a movie where I couldn't predict what was going to happen and was both surprised and satisfied with an ending I hadn't foreseen.

The truly remarkable thing about the movie is that it's an innately moral story, yet the telling of the story is undeniably crude. The premise focuses on a teenage pregnancy, and lots of characters do the wrong thing at the wrong time, and there's plenty of salty language and questionable situations. What's so wonderful, though, is that those people who do the wrong thing suffer the appropriate consequences, and the movie manages to depict immoral behavior without glorifying it. It's never preachy, yet underneath all the wisecracks is a solidly pro-life picture that reaffirms all the values that Hollywood despises. You have to marvel at how this one flew under the radar out into the theatres.

Ellen Page, who plays the title character, gives the performance of a lifetime. She's apparently only 20, but she plays 16, even though she looks 12. A more authentic teenager I have not seen on a movie screen. She has to breeze through amazingly witty and complex dialogue and still sound like a dopey kid, and she makes it look easy. JK Simmons, as her father, is the gold standard for how to play a frazzled movie dad. The other stand out, surprisingly, is Jason Bateman, playing the adoptive father of Juno's baby. This guy has come an awfully long way from his Teen Wolf Too days. (Personal trivia: He's also married to Amanda Anka, singer Paul Anka's daughter. She was in USC's BFA Theatre program with me the year before I went on a mission! Golly, Google makes a small world even smaller!)

I digress. Go see Juno. That is all.