What makes Juno stand out more than anything is the dialog, specifically that of the titular character.
I've actually read some reviews that bash the film for Juno's hipster speaking style, heavily gilded with pop culture references. They call it grating and a bad attempt to make the character cool and the movie hip. I think they should be forced to never again review a movie for this startlingly shallow reading of the movie.
Juno the character is built heavily on that use of language. From the moment we meet her, she's pregnant and in over her head. And the way she speaks projects supreme confidence and an almost casual tone about a really serious issue. And if you get to then end of the movie without realizing that Juno is using this style of speech to protect herself from pretty severe psychological scarring, you just weren't paying attention. The biggest clue is the scene where she has to tell her father and step-mother that she's pregnant. Juno paces back and forth, trying to come up with a cool way to broach the subject and fails horribly. She can't tell them. They guess at other serious problems. Her friend pushes her to just come out and say it. And right then Juno completely deflates. Her defensive shield has failed her and she has no choice but simply say "I'm pregnant." When she is forced to speak simply and plainly to admit her condition to her family it becomes painfully clear that the way Juno normally talks is a way of keeping the world at bay. It shields her and protects her from adults because they mostly struggle to keep up with what she is saying. When she meets the couple who want to adopt her baby she lays it on particularly thick, putting the adults completely off balance. She's controlling the situation and keeping it from becoming awkward for her by making it awkward for everyone else. Screenwriter Diablo Cody (I love that name) is making brilliant use of dialog here to build her character. It's not what Juno says that is the point but what she achieves by speaking that way. There is a real love of language at work here and that makes a negative reaction to it particularly galling.
Ellen Page brilliantly inhabits Juno. Her timing with that unusual style of speech makes it sing. She lets us slowly in over time so that we can really get to know a character that would really rather not be known. It's just about impossible to think of any other actress doing half as well in this role. And can you ask for a better pair of actors to play parents than J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney? They have none of the artifice movie parents of teens are usually dripping with. Instead we get wonderfully loving and believable parents.
I'm looking forward to this one arriving on DVD. Repeated watching will on deepen appreciation for what is an immaculately constructed film. Director Jason Reitman's ability to handle unusual tones and subtle themes strengthens the devastatingly effective combination of Page's performance and Cody's dialog. This is simply an endless watchable film.
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