Juno - 7

Juno is ultimately a fun, and funny, film that rest on the humanness of the characters it portrays. Juno (Ellen Page) is a quirky junior in high school, who impulsively decides to have sex with her long time friend, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). She soon discovers she is pregnant and then has to decide what is the responsible thing to do. She decides to give the child up for adoption by a nice suburban couple (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman). All of this is obviously a lot more complex than it sounds, especially for a young woman who is still discovering who she is. It isn't until the end of the film where the audience comes to really understand the fragility of being human and the devastating possibilities of things falling apart. But the films ends hopefully rather than cynically by showing that responsible decisions and real love are possible- even if they are hard work. This film follows in the recent trend started by Knocked Up and Superbad of telling a funny story that also illuminates lessons in being human. Some may be tempted to reduced this film down to the politics of abortion, but that would be missing the beauty and rich insight that this film provides.