Juno

I finally got a chance to watch Juno last night, and I found it quite enjoyable. I think it also quite nicely captures the pro-choice position; despite the fact that Juno decided to carry the pregnancy to term and give the baby up for adoption (it would have been a pretty pointless movie if she hadn’t), the choice is hers, and her friends and family support her, whatever path she decides to go on.

The “pro-choice” movement is not about aborting babies, it’s about empowering women to have control over their own bodies, and to be able to make choices free of coercion. Juno has that freedom, and so despite her freak-out at the abortion clinic that prevents her from going thru with it, this movie is not “pro-life”. In fact, Juno’s parents don’t find out about the pregnancy until Juno has already decided to carry to term, and they (despite dad’s – justified – wisecracks about how irresponsible it was of Juno to get pregnant) never pressure her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. There’s one scene in particular where Juno’s step-mother tears into a judgmental ultrasound tech that illustrates how supportive they would be of any decision she were to make.

At times the dialog is too-clever by half (“That’s not an Etch-a-Sketch. That’s one doodle that can’t be undid, homeskillet”, while hilarious, is the last thing I’d expect a 30-something convenience store clerk to say to a 16 year old girl about the results of a home pregnancy test), and the film definitely over-simplifies some things about pregnancy, and especially about adoption. But in the end, despite some of the hardships and emotional turmoil, Juno comes out the other end better for the experience, I think.

Ultimately, it’s a fun little progressive movie, with an almost sappy happy ending. I loved it.