Just saw Juno

I was pleasantly surprised to see this thread pop up again. The Mrs. and I watched it the other night; very, very good movie. But that's been established.

 

It looks like I'm in the minority on this one. My girlfriend and I turned Juno off tonight after about 35 minutes. Sucked so bad we couldn't watch any more. Considering the great reviews and Oscar nominations, I don't think I can recall being more let down by a movie.

Ellen Page's character was not at all funny or amusing; just annoying. Nothing seemed even remotely realistic about any of the characters I saw -- which would have been fine had I at least laughed once or twice from the oh-so-clever dialogue.

Four Oscar nominations? I'm really out of the mainstream I guess.

 

interesting. couldn't disagree more. now i can't believe page whiffed on the oscar.

 

According to Syd Field's book on screenwriting, which is aptly named Screenplay, the typical movie takes up to 20 minutes to delve into what it's really about. That's when the tone is set. In this movie, however, part of the brilliances comes from the message it sends. And that message is a bit of a surprise. It's a movie that builds and builds as opposed to your Home Alone sort of film, which sets up a premises and then beats it all to hell. I think you've done yourself a disservice by not giving it more than 35 minutes. My guess is that five minutes of that was just the opening credits.

 

Stallion --

I realize that I gave up pretty early in the movie. It's not something I typically do. And while I'm hardly a film aficionado, I'd like to think I enjoy smart and nuanced flicks more than say, Home Alone. For whatever reason, this movie was not amusing or engaging to me. It just turned me off more and more as it went on.

Here's a few lines/scenes from the first 35-40 minutes of Juno that helped me call it a night:

"Hello, I’d like to procure a hasty abortion"

While it's fine that Juno wasn't portrayed as a basket case because she was pregnant, does anyone really talk like this -- especially a 16 year old facing the most important decision of their life so far? This line was similar to many others by Page that were just too clever for their own good. If it was supposed to be a cute line to get laughs, it failed.

"All babies want to get borned"

Was this girl supposed to be retarded? Or was it some kind of 'Asians don't speak very good English' joke? Because I've never met a high schooler who -- unless they were mentally retarded -- talked like that. Was it a crack at the fanatical anti-abortion crowd? I don't know, but I got caught on this scene (The exchange where Juno offered Adderal was unfunny and unbelievable as well). Whatever they were trying to portray, not funny or amusing in the least.

"I mean, can't we just, like, kick this old school? Like, I have the baby, put it in a basket and send it your way, like, Moses and the reeds?"

Ugh. This is the scene where we gave up. Juno's lines were just too cute and too I'm So Much Smarter Than You Idiot Adults' for me. Page is probably a great actress, her character's lines were so annoying. I couldn't take it.

 

Should have stuck with it. It's great sort of in spite of the first 20 minutes. The dialogue settles down considerably.

 

Second that. I didn't think I would like it when I rented it via Netflix, but I did.

 

watching it again for the second time in 24 hours, so my eye is sharper. we're made to like the adoptiing hubby more than the adopting mom in the first half of the film. but it starts to change when juno sees jennifer garner playing with one of her friends' kids at the mall. right after, juno bumps into garner at the mall and lets jen touch her belly and talk to her tummy. well done.

 

Yep. I didn't foresee the husband hitting on Juno, though my wife did. I guess I didn't want to see it. I kind of identified with that character in some ways and was almost hoping for something like a communal family to develop - but even that would be almost entirely unrealistic. Most adoptive families want little interference from the birth mother.

 

I really liked the movie, especially considering I went into it with few expectations. I was starting to tire of the Ellen Page mania, and the only thing I was advised by a coworker was that "it's like a girls version of Superbad."

I thought there was something a little too perfect when the audience was first introduced to Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. Especially when Juno's walking up the steps and sees all of the portraits of them. Then, the first time Juno was in the house alone with Jason Bateman, I said, "yeah, that's sufficiently awkward."