Out of the Ordinary

It's very rare nowadays to go into a film you know nothing about. You usually read reviews like this one, check out the story line and make a decision. With Juno, I went in cold. The name gives nothing away and to be honest, all I'd heard was - it's very good. So, all I'm going to say is – It's very good and if, like me, you want to go in cold, stop reading now... Go on, off you go.

Couldn't resist could you? You know what they say about curiosity. Poor cat.

Attempting to describe Juno is tricky as every short description will make you associate it with a certain type of film. If I say Juno is a teen comedy, you think of Lindsay Lohan. It's not like that. If I say it's about teenage pregnancy and adoption, you'll probably assume it's some moral heavy drama and it's not. So it's neither of these and yet it's both. Juno is laugh-out-loud funny, cry-your-eyes-out emotional, thought-provoking, clever, sweet and honest.

The story follows 16-year old girl Juno (Ellen Page), who is riddled with teenage troubles. After becoming accidentally pregnant she decides to give the child up for adoption and chooses couple Vanessa and Mark Loring (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman,) from a classified ad. The story then follows Juno through her pregnancy, dealing with doctors, judgemental people, the adoptive parents and school. It sounds so simple but the script, written by 28-year-old Diablo

Cody gives Juno a realistic Emo kid cynicism. Cody challenges every stereoptype and judgement perfectly – the pregnant kid isn't irresponsible, the stepmother isn't nasty, the boyfriend isn't repulsed by pregnancy, the seemingly cold Vanessa isn't as heartless as she appears. Ellen Page is fantastic as the angsty, naïve but knowledgeable Juno and very much deserves the Oscar nomination she's received as does Cody for the script.

Jennifer Garner plays an obsessive compulsive character teetering on the edge of neurotic but nice to controlling and cold, perfectly.