With all the buzz surrounding "Bella" this fall, the Catholic press paid scant attention to another passionately pro-life movie about an unwanted pregnancy and a mother who chooses life: "Juno." I finally caught up with "Juno" last night. You might call it a "Bella" for cynics, but that would do a disservice to cynics. It's much warmer than that, much funnier, much more humane. And it is, at bottom, deeply and wonderfully humane. The title character is a sassy, skeptical 16-year-old who is played by a Canadian kid named Ellen Page in a performance that, so help me, is just plain perfect. She is given hilarious lines by screenwriter Diablo Cody. (To an adult who wonders if her parents will be worried that she's out so late: "I'm already pregnant. What other shenanigans can I get into?") And she makes you root for her, and her baby, and all the people in her life -- characters who are sometimes as befuddled as she is, but who are trying, however imperfectly, to do the right thing.
"Juno" doesn't have "Bella's" earnestness or moral certainty, and that may be one reason why it's a richer movie-watching experience. You know where "Bella" is headed from the first frame. You can't say that about "Juno," and the characters have to fight harder to win your affection. There are a lot of shades of gray in the movie, and a lot of ambiguity. When Juno arrives at the picture-perfect house of the picture-perfect couple who are offering to adopt her unborn child, you get a sinking feeling that this isn't going to work out -- even though you desperately want it to. It does work out, but not in ways you expect. And the ending manages to be both sentimental and realistic -- a rare feat, to be sure -- and goofily in sync with the whole message of the movie.
Which is: life is worth it. So choose it.
Churches won't be organizing field trips to see "Juno" -- it's frank language and sexuality and irreverent tone won't sit well with the Holy Name Society -- but make no mistake: it's unabashedly pro-life. For a mainstream Hollywood movie (one that many are touting for the Oscars) that's an achievement worth celebrating.
Footnote: I was delighted to discover that the song played over the opening credits is by none other than Barry Louis Polisar, a children's folk singer from Maryland whom I profiled eons ago, when I was a journalism student in college. He's still at it, bless him.
And the song is a charmer. You can watch the opening credits right here.
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3 comments:
Ellen Page will be 21 next month; she tends to play younger than she is. While "kid" fairly describes that age in relation to an old fart like me, it's not really accurate in absolute terms.
I saw it yesterday (finally) and definitely enjoyed the experience. Initially, I found myself disconnected to Juno and actually found her a bit incredible (do they really expect me to believe that a 16-year old kid talks/thinks like that? and her cynicism felt more like the grown-up variety), but somewhere in the middle (and this came before she announces it herself) I began to see her as the oftentimes emotionally vulnerable and confused kid she actually was, albeit a fast-talking one, spitting witticisms left and right. That's when the magic happened for me and I began to care about her more. By the end, I had fallen in love with her and the movie.
I think some people would say that this movie is actually pro-choice and that Juno simply chose to have her baby. The movie never conveyed the idea that aborting was not a worthy option; Juno just found it was not the right choice for her at that time. I don't know if I necessarily believe that, but I can see how that argument can be made.
I suppose if nothing else the film showed that keeping an unplanned pregancy to term is a viable option and can prove to be a blessing in people's lives. So, in that way, it is pro-life.
it's interesting that diablo cody, the screenwriter, grew up Catholic (although did do a stint as a stripper).
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