What do you all think of Ellen Page in the movie Juno?

[The Backlash Cometh]

Has there ever been an actress, so young, with so much emotional depth?

[ThomCat]

1. She definitely did a great job with that role.

I loved the acting and the visual feel of the movie. The dialog was well done!

I definitely have some opinions about the overall writing. It seems like the writer was making some deliberate anti-feminst jabs in the movie. :(

[Ava]

3. what was anti-feminist about it?

i saw it and loved it

oh, and yes.. she did an amazing job with the role

[ThomCat]

5. a couple of things.

Everyone was portrayed positively except the people in the abortion clinic.

The whole adoption issue was oversimplified as if giving up a child is easy to do. Combine that with the previous point and you have a deliberate (if subtle) anti-choice message.

The boy who got her pregnant had, essentially, an interesting bit part. He was not portrayed as having any responsibility, any real concern, any role in what was happening. He was just sort of there in the background until the very end of the movie.

Worse, she was specifically responsible for them having sex. (not both of them) At the very least, the movie is paying lip service to the old idea that bad girls seduce boys, and that pregnancy is therefore their own fault. But at least she can redeem herself by having the baby and giving it away.

[Ava]

6. i don't think it was anti-choice at all

part of being pro-choice is... people have a choice! she chose not to get an abortion.. i don't see how that is anti-choice.

also, i didn't think the adoption issue was oversimplified. i think that there was an excellent job done of showing a naive young girl who thought it was going to be easy. then when it came time to actually give the child up she realized it wasn't as easy as it was going to be(note her crying in the bed, acting depressed, not wanting to see the baby). i thought it was very well done in showing that. i personally would never be able to get an abortion.. i just don't think i could bring myself to do it.. that doesn't mean i'm anti-choice.

and yes, the boy was not involved, but if anything that showed how independent and strong willed juno was.. which is in itself feminist. he was not involved by juno's choice, not his.. at least that is what i took from it. and i don't think that she was honestly seen as being responsible for them having sex, they both obviously cared for one another. i think that it was a joke in the plot that she was so strong willed and he was pretty weak willed.

[Fran Kubelik]

7. you hit the nail on the head

That was exactly my impression of it.

[ThomCat]

9. I considered your first point.

But Juno had articulate reasons for everything, except why she chose not to abort. She just didn't like the receptionist and got annoyed while in the office. It was portrayed as just somehow wrong.

The fact that it was the one inconsistant part of the movie seems important to me.

The movie seems to me to be a classic example of a Morality Play, a story with an imbedded moral message. And in this one, that message seems to be:

See, if you have sex you'll get pregnant, because birth control fails. (Big anti-choice talking point.)
Even if you are thinking about abortion, it's just wrong.
Finding someone to adopt is easy.
Being pregnant while you are in school apparently has no significant impact or consequences. And if a cool kid like Juno can do it, so can you.

This may all be just my opinion. Feel free to disagree. But the message seems so obvious to me that it isn't just the simplified "Juno is strong willed" message.

[Ava]

10. that was her personality

to joke about things... i thought the reason she didn't abort was shown well.. she got nervous.. she got scared.. she decided not to do it. not because of the receptionist, but because she just didn't feel comfortable doing it. that was her *choice*. the movie wasn't meant to be a political statement about abortion.. it was meant to be a story about a girl and her choices and actions.

btw, there was never a moment where she said that she was on birth control. i took it that they had unprotected sex.. as many stupid teenagers do. one could see this as an argument for sex education that teaches about protection and birth control.
i also took it as to say that abortion is your own choice. just because juno didn't feel comfortable having an abortion doesn't mean it's an antichoice movie.
as for the being pregnant in school thing i thought they showed well how she was treated... teachers treated her poorly, students picked on her(as she talked about) and stared when they saw her. juno's personality was to act like it was nothing and brush it off.. however when she had her meltdown with bleaker in the hallway i think it showed that while she was trying not to let it show.. it really bothered her.


this is all my opinion.. take it as you may but it is coming from a teenage feminist. i also took it that this movie was targeted towards older teens and younger adults(especially women) because that is who is most likely to identify with juno. i know i did even though i've never been pregnant or in her position.

[grace0418]

11. I will agree that the abortion clinic bothered me. I didn't like that they were so

nonchalant about it. However, I thought the rest of it was handled really well, and considered it a pro-choice movie because she chose to put the baby up for adoption. I think they did simplify the adoption process, but it was a movie and I'm not so surprised by that. Very rarely do movies accurately depict how difficult it is to do various things (have a baby, run after criminals in high heels, dodge machine gun fire, have a makeover and suddenly become the hottest girl in school, etc.). They handled it well considering. And the boyfriend was about as clueless and confused as can be expected considering his age and personality, as well as Juno's personality. I think if she had voiced an interest in him being more involved (or her parents wanted him more involved) he would've done so. Having seen that situation in real life with a friend of mine, I remember the father needing to be lead around by the hand through most of the process. Not because he was a jerk or unwilling to become involved, but because he was young, clueless and completely freaked out.

[MonkeyFunk]

2. I thought she was brilliant

[deucemagnet]

4. I haven't seen "Juno" yet...

...but I feel she was brilliant in "Hard Candy". You could tell she was something special even back then.

[Richardo]

8. Teenage Janeane Garofalo

Loved her in that role.