Juno
The one criticism that I had heard of the movie, always from adoptive parents, was that the decision to place her baby for adoption was "too easy" for Juno. I disagree.
First, there are no "typical" birthparents, just as their aren't any "typical" adoptive parents. I don't think Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) is at all like me, and I would be offended if everyone who saw Juno assumed that all adoptive moms-to-be were as, well, emotionally in check, almost as though she were on too many behavioral meds. I hope that they won't come away from the movie believing that all birthmothers, or even just all teenage birthmothers, are like Juno. I think that Juno's decision was true to her character, and that's the best one can hope for in a movie. When characters start acting like people they're not, that's when the movie takes a Lifetime TV turn for the tissues.
Juno isn't an adoption movie. It's not even a movie about adoption. It's a movie about a pregnant teenager. How she deals with that pregnancy and is able to deal with the issues "far higher than [her] maturity level" is what makes the movie a great movie.
For Juno, the misfit, she takes things as they come. She just decides. Whatever it is, she makes a decision and goes with it. The decision to have sex with her best friend, for example, is the basis for the entire drama. She immediately decides that she's going to have an abortion, because pregnancy, if left unchecked, could "result in an infant." Juno meets a classmate on the way into the clinic - the girl is the sole protester in the parking lot. She tells Juno that the baby has fingernails, which makes Juno pause, then go into the clinic. The decision feels wrong, she leaves, and then she chooses adoption.
Juno knows from the get-go that she is "ill-equipped" to be a mother. There are only two ways to avoid that fate. The first, abortion, apparently isn't for her. So, then the best way to make a "blessing out of this garbage heap of a situation" is to "give" her baby to parents who want it. Juno accepts that this is not her time to be a mom, and she seems comfortable with that. Although we do see that it hurts her to go through the ordeal, she remains confident that she is making the right choice.
Her situation reminds me of an exchange that I had online. An adoptive mom asked, essentially, how early was too early to match with an expectant mom? A lot of the adoptive moms, if I remember correctly, said never to match before the final trimester, although a couple of rebels said that there's no magic time. One birthmom posted, and said that she knew from the moment she found out she was pregnant that she was going to place this child. The first agency she talked with wouldn't let her look at adoptive parent profiles until she was in her 7th month. The birthmom was very angry about that, and found a new agency that let her match at her own pace. She wanted to really know the adoptive parents, and wanted them to come to doctor's appointments and be a part of the pregnancy process. She did place her child with them. She resented other people placing their timelines and expectations on her.
That is what I think of when I think of Juno. The girl knows that this is not her turn, and she is making a parent out of someone who really wants to be one.
In Adoptive Families magazine (I think), one person mentioned the use of incorrect terminology in the movie. Juno says she's going to "give up" her baby. The more correct term is "place". But people outside of the adoption community don't know that. Juno is 16. To her, she's giving up her baby.
The fact that she wants a closed adoption, and that Vanessa agrees with that, is interesting to me. I had hoped that I would see them both come to a realization that knowing one another, even if only through annual updates, would be better for all involved, especially the child. But that was more of a politically correct idea than one that would fit Juno's character. Try to get this over with, get it behind her, and move on with life. That was Juno's goal.
Going forward, might Juno have lasting psychological problems? Maybe. But this isn't about adoption as a whole, and its impact on the lives of people involved with it. Almost every frame has Juno in it, although there are a few pertinent conversations among the other characters. The birthfather (Michael Cera) has nothing to do with the actual adoption, and we have no idea how he feels about the pregnancy. There's a reason the movie is titled Juno.
So, I don't think that the "too easy" criticism is valid, and I do think that this movie is awesome.
There is one critic who wrote that Jennifer Garner's performance was so good and wholesome "she deserved to have that baby." I refrained from passing judgment on this until I actually saw the movie, although it is something that bothers me in real life situations. And yeah, it still bothers me. Vanessa no more deserved that baby than anyone else. Did she deserve to be a mom? Yes, I think she did. I was glad to see why Juno thought she'd be a good mother, as their first interactions together were stunted, and I was thinking, "Wow. Is this really what people think of when they think of adoptive parents?" Probably. But I guess we all have our stereotypes to overcome.
Finally, can I just say that I want Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons to be my parents? Because they were amazing! I honestly believed that they were the parents of this unusual girl. A lot of times in movies, the parents are just bodies that one has to include because teenagers must have parents. Juno's parents were very well developed. Allison Janney especially is underrated. I have decided that I love her.


