Robeco Filmdag: Juno

The film Juno experienced a triumphant tour of many international film festivals, including Rotterdam, and granted one of its four Oscar nominations (Best Scenario). It is not difficult to understand why it's such a success. Does it even have any weak points? The brilliant, heart-warming acting of the protagonist Ellen Page; the clever, funny screenplay larded with American teenage slang, the feel-good character, despite the serious subjects tackled by the film. The film underlines the high level of today's narrative American cinema.
Juno MacGuff (16) finds out she pregnant after making love to her good friend Paulie. It soon turns out that Paulie is not much use to her in deciding what to do. Her best friend comforts her and advises her to tell her parents. Juno decides to offer her baby to be for adoption. She recognises the young, childless couple Vanessa and Mark as a suitable adoption parents and she gets on well with Mark partly because he is a professional musician and composer. Just maybe, Juno gets a little too involved with the couple. Ellen Page plays a clever, emotionally mature teenager who steals everyone's heart. But the other characters are also sketched with love and compassion in the screenplay by Diablo Cody. 'Juno is just about the best movie of the year' (Roger Ebert). (EH)