Special Delivery
Juno
(PG-13)
originally published January 9, 2008
Ellen Page and Michael Cera
A frank, funny discussion of family, teenage sexuality and parenting without a hint of the cool irony that typically detaches independent comedies, Juno is a little charmer that lives up to all its preceding hype, most of which has deservedly swirled around hotter-than-thou screenwriter Diablo Cody (her life couldn’t be hipper had she fashioned it all from fiction; her pre-Juno career path involved stripping, an ad agency, phone sex and a book) and the absurdly talented Ellen Page (Hard Candy). These two squeeze tears of laughter from a 16-year-old’s predicament, thanks to chic dialogue and a winning performance. Cody has a way - quick and smart - with words; her fresh voice earns every bit of its enthusiastic acclaim. I cannot wait to see/ hear what she does next. In Juno, she has created a most unique character, whose “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” pickle Page enacts flawlessly.
Lost in all the hot fuss about Cody and Page is director Jason Reitman, whose second, wickedly witty feature builds a solid first floor on top of the foundation of 2005’s smartly comic Thank You for Smoking. Juno is tangible proof he knows how to bring the funny out of material and performances without mucking it up. Juno also adheres to The Little Miss Sunshine Principle; an independent comedy is only as worthwhile as its ensemble, and Juno’s entire cast is golden. The lucky ones of us who suffered through the cancellation of “Arrested Development” already know Michael Cera and Jason Bateman have the deadpan goods. No one who has watched more than a handful of “Alias” episodes should be surprised at Jennifer Garner’s icy, sad fragility. Yet Juno’s most unsung denizens are Juno's parents, the loving, understanding, understandably frustrated MacGuffs (J.K. Simmons, best known as Spider-Man’s J. Jonah Jameson, and “The West Wing” veteran Allison Janney). These two wilily negotiate the rocky path to unwanted grandparenthood with open-minded humor. It never occurs to them to angrily denounce their little Junebug, even when she’s not so little anymore. Juno’s teenage pregnancy may be the least complicated - and funniest - of all time, yet that hopeful, youthful optimism is something of which we could use a lot more. Unlike so many independent comedies, Juno the film and Juno the snarky, pregnant heroine aren’t too cool to care. They want to love Juno’s scrawny, unrequited impregnator Paulie Bleeker; they want the childless Lorings to become the happy parents they could be; and they want Juno’s father and stepmother to not be disappointed in their dumb daughter. And because they care, so will you.
The Wright Stuff
Atonement
(R)
originally published January 9, 2008
Keira Knightley
Ian McEwan’s 2002 novel of the fictions we create to hurt, to heal and to survive arrives on the big screen with the fanfare expected of a splashy literary adaptation. Preceded by nattering of awards to come (seven Golden Globe nominations could translate into at least five Oscar noms), a film like Atonement can be hard to appraise on its own merit. Determining one’s genuine reaction can be difficult; the hype can be hard to skim off. Am I disappointed because I unfairly expected too much or do I overly praise so as to appear more critically astute? Ask not such questions about Atonement. Pride & Prejudice director Joe Wright has followed up a very commendable Brit lit film with a positively majestic one.
Based on one of the greatest novels of the new century (hell, the new millennium), Atonement waxes fastidiously poetic about the past and how remembrance of it can bring peace - and maybe even forgiveness - unachievable in the present reality. The lives of the Tallis girls - older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley, who gives a performance that lives up to her heretofore undeserved hoopla) and 13-year-old Briony (the revelatory, young Saoirse Ronan) - are changed forever by the spiteful events of one summer day in the English countryside. A false accusation concocted by the betrayed Briony, so resolute in adolescent arrogance, sends her sister’s lower-class lover, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), first to prison, then to France to fight the Nazis. I almost feel I’ve given away too many plot details in that brief, vague summary. Much of Atonement’s beauty is derived from its unfolding with deceiving elaborateness, like origami in reverse. The Oscar-winning screenwriter of Dangerous Liaisons, Christopher Hampton, enlightens the audience with only so much knowledge as is required for any given scene; any more would risk diluting the narrative power of dramatic suspense. Atonement is a romantic drama that tests the heart like a rousing thriller. Director Wright, who appeared as if from nowhere with 2005’s Pride & Prejudice (which also starred Knightley), again displays a talent that is surprisingly fully developed. In his second feature, he splendidly mounts a sprawling epic of deliriously personal scope. Wright can simultaneously claim the year’s most technically impressive feat, a massively staged Battle of Dunkirk unveiled in one ludicrously ambitious 5-and-1/2 minute single shot, and the year’s most repressed ardor. The Brontë sisters would be jealous over Wright’s corseted subjugation of Cecilia and Robbie’s barely requited love affair. If Atonement can be relied upon as an indicator, British cinema has found a new golden boy, the next David Lean to deal in films worth their literary weight in gold-plated, bald statuettes.
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