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I was fortunate enough to secure a ticket to AMC's Oscar Best Picture all day extravaganza. This is where they play all 5 best picture nominated films back to back. Juno was the only comedy among the best picture nominees. And I found this movie to be the most entertaining of the best picture nominated films. It has a solid story, a good screenplay and great acting.

Sixteen year-old high school student Juno (Ellen Page) becomes pregnant from a one afternoon foray she has with her friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). At first, she decides she will get an abortion but she cannot go through with it. Realizing that she cannot care for a child she picks a couple out of the penny savor that is looking to adopt a child. The movie follows Juno as she deals with the trials and tribulations of love and being a high school student as well as being a pregnant teenager. It gives a look at two kinds of married couples, the perfect ones that we see in magazines and the kind of semi-perfect marriages that we all know and some of us live with. This movie takes some very important issues like teen pregnancy, abortion, and relationships and gives them a smart twist of humor. It is the script and the attitudes of the characters that really bring this film to life.

The cinematography, score, and special effects were solid but nothing special. It was the acting the made this film and it was spectacular. Juno is played by Ellen Page. She is a spunky, sure of herself teenager? Can that happen? Well if it could then Ellen Page's Juno would exemplify what that would be like. She is witty, smart, and funny, childish in some ways but so grown up in others. Paulie Bleeker played by Michael Cera is the typical geek/social outcast boy. He seems a mere footnote in Juno's tale. Vanessa Loring is played by Jennifer Garner. She is the typical middle lady, unable to have children she longs for a child. She doesn't understand Juno as they come from different social classes and she remains afraid that Juno will change her mind and keep the child. Garner brings all that fear, frustration, and longing to her character. Her husband, Mark, is played by Jason Bateman. Mark is an immature man who doesn't really want a child, he has never really grown up and is still living in high school and relates better to Juno than he does his own wife. Bren MacGuff, Juno's stepmother, is played by Allison Janney. Bren is interesting and strangely supportive to her step daughter. Mac MacGuff, Juno's Father, seems to be a caring, supportive father. All the acting was well done and for me really brought the characters to life.

I really enjoyed this movie and thought it was well done and deserving of its Oscar for best original screenplay. It was a new take on an old topic with wit, grace and humor. You should definitely give this one a try.

Learn more about this author, Heather Lyon.
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