I'm normally a kind of miserable person to go to the cinema with. I've probably seen about ten films where I haven't been distracted / depressed by some flaw or absence or gentle intrusion. Normally, I come out and say things like: "It was really good until..." or "If only they'd not bottled the ending..." or "Maybe if they'd added some zombies or cheerleaders...". But I went to see Juno and I have to say it's more or less perfect. Every character is likeable and more or less believable, every performance a little lesson in how to kook-out without turning into an emetic. It's what I want to think all Americans are like.
It's exactly the kind of thing I like in music and film; something that gets so close to utterly rubbish that you can almost feel the tension between the characters - one false move, one missed cue and this is the kind of thing that might make me queasy, in the same way that Orbital sometimes got so close to Jean Michel Jarre it could be frightening listening to an album for the first time. Even the soundtrack works with the characters rather than against them - it's fey as hell but it fits perfectly with the gentle rolls of the film, bouncing along with Juno in neat little quantum Converse jumps.
It's never annoying, even when I wanted it to be. It ends like you'd want it to end, not like other people think you'd want it to end and it deals with the potentially tricky problem of teenage pregnancy with a delicacy and charm that gives another perspective entirely on a woman's right to choose. I'm not even sure if it'd be improved by extra zombies and cheerleaders.
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