Previously, on the Shameless blog: Judd Apatow’s keeping mum on abortion. At the time I wrote that post, Juno hadn’t yet arrived in theatres, though if you were lucky you could’ve caught it at the Toronto International Film Festival or at one of many test screenings across North America. Since then the movie has raked in decent box office and a whole lot of accolades; Roger Ebert named Juno his favourite movie of 2007, and whether or not you agree with Ebert’s reviews, it’s a pretty hefty bit of praise.
Now that I’ve seen the movie twice (including just now, which is my excuse for why this Film Friday’s going up on Saturday), it seems like a good time to come back to Juno and see how it measures up. Let’s get that abortion issue out of the way first, since I brought it up so many months ago: Juno is not a movie about abortion, and whether you appreciate the movie’s treatment of abortion as a possible choice for a pregnant teenaged girl will probably depend on whether you want it to be a movie about abortion or if you’re willing to let Juno stand on its own merits.
(Quick note: the post is spoiler-free, but the comments aren’t!)
Contrary to Knocked Up‘s two-minute dismissal of The Medical Procedure That Shall Remain Nameless, Diablo Cody’s script gives the issue of abortion its share of airtime. And though, in the end, our heroine Juno McGuff (played by Ellen Page) decides to keep her baby (not really a spoiler), I never got the sense that she would’ve been criticized if she decided otherwise, or that she was coerced into keeping her child. Instead, Juno makes the choice on her own terms, which in the end is the whole idea of being pro-choice, I think: the ability to make your own decisions on whether to have an abortion or bring your child to term. The fact that a teenager is allowed to come to a decision by herself, without a whole lot of heavy moralizing from a bunch of adults, actually strikes me as somewhat refreshing.
Something else that’s refreshing is how Juno treats the concept of family. As she winds through the various stages of pregnancy, Juno takes another journey of discovery: what makes for a good family? At the start of the film, Juno and her friend Leah look through the classifieds to find the right barren couple upon which to unload the infant, and behind Juno’s snark lies some very particular ideas about who’s deserving of her baby. Already has kids? Nope. “Spiritually wealthy”? Nada. When she comes upon the picture of Mark and Vanessa Loring—a picture-perfect, young professional couple that ticks all the right checkboxes, Juno thinks she’s found gold. Without going into the juicy details, the rest of the film is devoted to tearing down the idea of the “picture-perfect” baby-rearing couple, and eventually concludes that true family comes down to who you love and who loves you. It’s an awfully traditional and—dare I say it?—Hollywood premise, but strangely it worked for me.
In the end, Juno doesn’t really go into great detail about abortion as a viable option, but I’m actually quite okay with that. Stacey May pointed to Viva La Feminista’s post that poses the question of whether abortion belongs in a love story, and I think the world could use some more comedies where the woman gets an abortion. But in the meantime, I’m perfectly willing to let Juno be Juno, and appreciate the film for its many merits.
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five comments
Juno was such a strong character; all through the film I felt she was doing exactly what she wanted in regards to her pregnancy. Even the sex was her idea. So I completely agree with you about letting Juno be Juno and not a movie about abortion...while I too hope there will be other movies offering a deeper exploration of the abortion option with an equal amount of aplomb.
Posted by C.K. Kelly Martin
January 13, 2008, 3 PM
My issue with the movie is different. Why does the husband pursue juno? Does he have to be proven a childish freak in order for the audience to accept that the "yuppy cupple's" marriage needs to end? Is this the only possible outcome to a tween having a friendship with an adult man (after all before the dance scene everything seems normal enough between them) The whole older man being with preteen girl is tackled two ways at least in the movie, that I can see. There's a girl who Juno notices is attracted to teachers and there's the incident with this guy. The issue is never really resolved & the idea of marital jealousy and rape even enter the picture. Thoughts??
I just wish the receptionist at the abortion clinic hadn't been shown as such a trendy, skanky, disinterested wirdo. That strikes me as kind of off, as does the "friendly anti-abortion student" outside the clinic. Somehow I just don't think that's what the anti-abortion movement really feels like for young moms.
Posted by Myra
January 13, 2008, 10:52 PM
Well Myra, first off, the characters aren't pre-teens. They are heartily teenagers, Juno for instance is 16 so that distinction makes a bit of a difference, I think.
With regard to the husband (Jason Bateman) I thought the film made it quite clear that he wasn't nearly ready to be an adult. He had his own 'room', like a teenager, to continue being young and 'irresponsible' (fucking off to play guitar with Juno and feeling cool instead of discussing the adoption with his wife and the lawyer and Juno's dad) and his attraction to Juno was mostly because he still saw HIMSELF as this young, hip guy, or at least he wanted to.
I think the anti-abortion student was supposed to represent mainly small town dynamics where everybody knows everybody and its harder to judge somebody youve known since elementary school, and also Juno's 'air' about her, that she's got this intimidating persona.
Where does rape idea come from? Between Juno and the husband or the teacher and other student? I didn't get a rape vibe.
Posted by Danielle
January 14, 2008, 10:36 AM
Is this the only possible outcome to a tween having a friendship with an adult man (after all before the dance scene everything seems normal enough between them)
Funny you bring this up, Myra: there are apparently two common responses to the way Juno and Mark's relationship unfolds on screen. There's the camp that thinks it's mostly fine up until the dance scene, when everything goes all wrong, and then there's the camp I'm in, where everything goes all wrong almost from the word go. Even on first viewing I got this sense that all was not right between the two of them, and if you look back at the events in the film you might notice that the two of them act overly familiar with one another very early on in the film.
Is Mark supposed to be indicative of all grown men who have relationships with young girls? I highly doubt it, partially because the movie takes great pains to paint Mark's relationship issues as a sign he isn't mature enough to deal with a kid. The question of whether he's actually infatuated with Juno or just the idea of a cool teenager liking him is almost secondary.
About C.K. Kelly Martin's remark at the top, I felt exactly the same way about Juno. Another interesting discussion point I didn't bring up in the post was Michael Cera's character, Paulie, and his relative lack of involvement in the pregnancy—we always see Leah at the important events like the ultrasound, but never Paulie. I've seen this premise questioned a couple of times, and it boils down to this: did Juno cut him out of the loop because that's the kind of girl she is, or did Paulie take himself out of the loop and essentially force Juno to deal with the pregnancy on her own? I think of Juno as a pretty headstrong girl myself, so I lean towards the former, but hey, more food for thought.
Posted by Wesley
January 14, 2008, 6:09 PM
Oh, and as it turns out, part of the Paulie debate took place in the comments of our very own blog.
Posted by Wesley
January 14, 2008, 6:14 PM
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