Movie Review: Juno

Last Friday night, a fifteen-year-old friend and I drove to Mount Pleasant to see Juno, a comedy about a sixteen-year-old girl who finds herself pregnant. We both really enjoyed the movie, and it's stuck with me enough over the past week to do a quick review.

What really impressed me about the movie (besides the superb acting jobs, witty dialogue, and catchy soundtrack) was how affirming the movie was of the value of life ("sanctity of life" is a stretch, but I'll take what I can get). Christianity Today's review talks of it's "implicitly pro-life—not 'anti-choice,' but certainly pro-life—sensibilities," and that sums it up about right. The eponymous heroine of Juno considers aborting her baby, but seeing a classmate (who I think was ESL) picketing outside the abortion clinic who tells her, "Your baby has fingernails!" changes her mind...when she goes inside, all she can notice are everyone's fingernails, and she leaves in a hurry.

Juno's not cut out to be a teen mom, though, she decides, and so she gives the baby up for adoption. The adoptive parents are human through and through, and there are several twists and turns before the story ends, showing that though people are flawed, good can come out of difficult situations.

Apart from enjoying the movie myself, I felt that it did a good job of promoting a pro-life message to a secular culture. Although staunchly pro-life myself, I'm a realist, and I don't see legislation changing anything on the highly polarized issue of abortion until people see it as unthinkable. Juno doesn't present abortion as unthinkable, but it shows life--and adoption--as a better option. To quote Christianity Today again, "Life is life, and deserves to be nurtured, even—if not especially—when everything around it is broken."

Plus, the movie opened up a good discussion about abortion, temptation, and adoption on the way home, which is always a good plus.

Rating: **** (out of 5)