Juno - my review

[asad_raza5367]

I just saw the movie 'Juno' and I would like to offer my opinion.

The movie is about a 16 year old high school girl named Juno who gets pregnant, decides to keep the baby but give it up for adoption to a young couple who have not been able to have a baby of their own.

The main character is incredibly immature, irresponsible and unremorseful with regard to what she has done.

The boy who has impregnated her is a clueless dork who can barely put together a sentence without sounding like a retard. Ah the perfect parents.

The movie sets a terrible example for teenage girls in America, or anywhere else!

The story fails on all levels as follows:

1) When Juno tells her parents that she is pregnant, they respond by saying
'oh, lets make you a doctors appointment and get you started on prenatal vitamins'.
Are you kidding me?
They should have completely lost it and grounded her *** for years and made plans to have
her shipped off to a strict boarding school.
Or at least show some disappointment and given her a lecture about how she basically
ruined her life.

2) The parents do nothing to show that they feel this is a bad thing. Which it is by the way!
No 16 year old girl should get pregnant, not in this day and age.
They take her to get her ultrasound and smile and laugh when they see the baby on the screen.
Whatever!
When the ultrasound tech states some words of reality, the mother actually gets offended?
Give me a break. Hooray for that ultrasound tech. The mother needs a kick in the ***. It is her
lousy upbringing that led to this pregnancy.

3) The couple who decide to adopt the child are so not fit to be parents. On the surface
they seem pretty nice, but later we find out the husband is basically unemployed, stays at home
all day, dreams of becoming a rock star (no joke) and to top it all off wants to divorce his wife!
The wife is an emotional roller coaster who sees no reality except that she wants a baby, she wants a baby. . .

4) The movie does not touch on any of the negative aspects associated with teenage pregnancy, which include: high school dropout rates, unemployment, welfare mothers, malnurished babies, abuse, neglect, absent fathers, lack of child support, depression, loneliness, basically a life destroyed.
It is not a cute issue like the movie seems to imply.

5) Now I'm not going to start an 'abortion vs pro-life' debate here. But at bare minimum, the movie should have shown some of the negative aspects of teenage pregnancy and there are many! I won't come out ans say Juno should have got an abortion. But I will say that she should have never gotten pregnant in the first place.
It's about good parental upbringing, setting boundaries, rules, expectations, morals and more.

'Juno' just glorifies the whole teenage pregnancy issue, makes it seem cute, innocent, likeable, easily dealt with occurence in everyday life.

This approach is not only absurd and as far from reality as you can get, but I can say that it makes me think that the people who made the film are just as stupid and irresponsible as Juno herself.

This was a horrible movie and a terribly shameful example for young women in America.

[bizdady]

Sounds like you took this movie too personal.

[BigScreener84]

So disagree. I thought this was a really well done movie, with wit that addressed an issue of today's youth. Her sarcasm could be overbearing at times but that is my only complaint.

[Vamatt99218]

I also have to disagree. You might have taken it too personal as some have said already. I my opinion its a well done quirky comedy....

[bloss]

The main character is incredibly immature, irresponsible and unremorseful with regard to what she has done.

well, she is 16.

The boy who has impregnated her is a clueless dork who can barely put together a sentence without sounding like a retard. Ah the perfect parents.

there's a few of them out there.

The movie sets a terrible example for teenage girls in America, or anywhere else!

I'll have to disagree with you on that one. This movie is cherry compared to anything Paris, Britney, or Nicole have slurped on the screen big or small.

1) When Juno tells her parents that she is pregnant, they respond by saying
'oh, lets make you a doctors appointment and get you started on prenatal vitamins'.
Are you kidding me?
They should have completely lost it and grounded her *** for years and made plans to have
her shipped off to a strict boarding school.
Or at least show some disappointment and given her a lecture about how she basically
ruined her life.

Of course her parents reacted that way because it is a movie... and you're right most parents would fly into a rage. But where does that get the situation?
Grounding a teenager... shipping them off, HA, like that will keep them down... they will only rebel more and hate their parents forever.
The film is showing possibly a better way for parents to handle the situation. Your way seems to justify throwing stones at the girl and castrating her boyfriend.

2) The parents do nothing to show that they feel this is a bad thing. Which it is by the way!
No 16 year old girl should get pregnant, not in this day and age.
They take her to get her ultrasound and smile and laugh when they see the baby on the screen.
Whatever!
When the ultrasound tech states some words of reality, the mother actually gets offended?
Give me a break. Hooray for that ultrasound tech. The mother needs a kick in the ***. It is her
lousy upbringing that led to this pregnancy.

Well, the parents did show that they were disappointed (I don't remember them jumping for joy when they heard the news).
No 16 year old should get preggers in this day and age... well that depends on the culture I suppose.
At the ultrasound, they see the living being growing inside of Juno for the very 1st time. It would seem that just about anyone going through that (no matter the circumstances) would feel some happy emotion along with some sad ones.
The mother needs a kick in the ***, you say? Well, that would probably be correct if she were around (Juno's real mom fled. If you actually paid attention to the film then you would remember that that was actually Juno's stepmother (a woman not of birth relation, however she loves Juno and is standing by her side, kudos). However unrealistic that may be I'm glad her role was what it was in the film. Hopefully more families will learn from it.

3) The couple who decide to adopt the child are so not fit to be parents. On the surface
they seem pretty nice, but later we find out the husband is basically unemployed, stays at home
all day, dreams of becoming a rock star (no joke) and to top it all off wants to divorce his wife!
The wife is an emotional roller coaster who sees no reality except that she wants a baby, she wants a baby. . .

Yes, the couple adopting were flawed... who isn't... you, I suppose. Who really is fit to be a parent anyway? My parents weren't but they did it anyway. NOBODY is absolutely fit to be a perfect parent. It's a hands-on job... you learn by doing.
Once again if you paid attention to the film, the husband was not unemployed, he worked from home (not uncommon in today's society) composing music for commercials (he even told Juno that one commercial paid for that really cool kitchen they had).
His wife saying he still wanted to be a rock star was actually a crack at belittling his dreams (rockstar could have been a greater portion of what he wanted, however he said he was composer which could mean that he would have wanted to compose scores to films and television shows). I loved then hated his character because of his lack of balls to communicate to his wife his feelings in not wanting to be a parent.

4) The movie does not touch on any of the negative aspects associated with teenage pregnancy, which include: high school dropout rates, unemployment, welfare mothers, malnurished babies, abuse, neglect, absent fathers, lack of child support, depression, loneliness, basically a life destroyed.
It is not a cute issue like the movie seems to imply.

I'm pretty sure we all already know the negative aspects associated with teenage pregnancy. Juno is showing that there are possibilities; that a life or two could succeed and thrive despite the scorn in the high school halls of society.
Based on your opinion I see you as one of the many looking down on pregnant Juno walking through the halls of her school. Well, I'm one of the ones walking behind her in those hallways. She is only human... humans are flawed (except you), but by the beard of Zeus, she is going to get through it; she is going to try and give her baby a better life than she can offer; she is not going to care what the halls of society say behind her back because she could give two craps about what others think; she made a mistake and is going to try and make up for it.

But I will say that she should have never gotten pregnant in the first place. It's about good parental upbringing, setting boundaries, rules, expectations, morals and more.

You're right... she should never have, but oops... she fell on top of boyfriend's lap and didn't know when to pull out or remember to wear a purple condom. Now she has deal with it.
Good parental upbringing - no such thing. All I remember growing up is all the parents saying it's bad and don't do it. drugs, sex, etc. Most parents do not know how to communicate to their own kids on complex issues. Schools don't really do that good of a job in communicating either considering that most parents do not want their children exposed to the lessons and consequences of sex. For my sex-ed, I was shown a reel to reel film made in the 70s or early 80s telling me all I needed to know about sex. This was high school in the middle 90s. For some reason I felt it was inadequate. The only way I ever figured sex out was watching porn and having girlfriends (not the best way to go). Oh sure it felt good, but I was stupid and lucky.
Setting boundaries and rules only sets them up to be broken.

'Juno' just glorifies the whole teenage pregnancy issue, makes it seem cute, innocent, likeable, easily dealt with occurence in everyday life.

It does not glorify the issue; if that were the case then Juno's pregnancy would have started a trend through the high school; other chicks at her high school would have gotten knocked up because "OH-MY-GOD! That's totally wizard! Juno's preggers! I wanna be preggers too!"
Showing how the rest of school and parents looked down on her because of her getting knocked up shows me that it is not glorified.

This was a horrible movie and a terribly shameful example for young women in America.

I'll have to disagree with you on that one. It was way better than "No Country For Old Men" and I'm a longtime Coen Brothers fan, but that is a story for another time.

Take care and good luck raising your children.