Juno DVD Review

"Juno" reviews

DVD

Juno

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2008-05-30 16:50:24

Provider

DVD Review

Ellen Page's performance alone most definitely lived up to the hype surrounding this teen comedy-drama. She's witty and sharp as pregnant schoolgirl Juno MacGuff. But also warm and surprisingly vulnerable. Page's performance is deceptively simple; she never asks the audience to love her, yet she effortlessly carries a movie in which she's in almost every scene. Her opposite number, Superbad's Michael Cera, does fantastically as the timid, shy father, Paulie Bleeker. A total antithesis to the vivacious Juno.

Whilst Juno and Bleeker try and cope with an unexpected pregnancy, things become complicated when Juno's relationship with older-man, Mark (Jason Bateman) starts strengthening. Mark plans to adopt Juno's child with his sullen wife Vanessa (Jennifer Garner).

Juno is daring and funny. Page's one-liners and awkward silence starters make Juno a film to remember. You wouldn't have thought a film about teenage pregnancy would have been so successful.

Director Jason Reitman keeps the movie from slipping into easy, shallow sarcasm or foundering in sentimentality.

The Juno single disc DVD boasts a wide range of extras. Perhaps too many. One tends to groan after seeing endless gag reels and screen tests but you can always go back to the excellent film.