Juno

I read Barbara Nicolosi's glowing review of Juno, among others, and decided I really wanted to see the film. Roger Ebert says of Juno that it is the year's best movie. A mere 91 minutes, the film is about Juno, a 16 year old who finds herself pregnant after an impromptu encounter with one of her best friends. She decides to find a couple who would like to adopt the baby. The dialogue is witty and sassy, but there are some traces of tragedy interlaced in this comedy.

One thing that clearly stands out, despite Juno's many references to "it" or the "thing" inside her, is that she is growing a baby. Indeed, the characters tear up at the first ultrasound that shows the head, the hands, and the little feet. Both Vanessa, the woman who hopes to adopt, and the baby's biological father, Paulie, show awe at feeling the baby kick. In this age of dehumanizing doublespeak that is careful never to refer to the pre-born as a baby, the excitement that such new life generates in the film is refreshing. The truth of life, and that pregnancy equals a new human life, is very much manifest, and that was great to see.

What wasn't so great to see, in my opinion, was a mere 16 year old who figures out what to do with her girlfriend, and only then tells her parents her plans. Nicolosi and others describe Juno's parents as wonderfully supportive, and they are, but where was their guidance in Juno's life in the first place? I know that teens are at the stage where they are becoming independent, and that many of today's teens would not welcome parental guidance. But isn't that a parent's job? I think that too many parents simply give up when the teen years roll around, and in doing so, they leave their young people with no moorings, no anchors in the unpredictable sea of life.

And that is the second thing that disturbed me in Juno: the lack of any foundation, any ethic, to which Juno could cling in the situation in which she finds herself. I don't think that movies need to be overtly religious to be good, or to express spiritual truths. But Juno ends up choosing to carry the child almost as "accidentally" as she conceives him. She says something about making a great sacrifice in doing so, but it is a remark that is an after-thought to the decision, not a guiding principle.

What was achingly clear is that Juno is struggling to make sense of life and love, and she is doing so mostly with the help of her fellow 16 year olds. Oh yes, there are a couple of touching scenes with her father. In one he instructs her that the most important thing in a relationship is to find someone who loves you for you. Yes, that's important. But there's no talk here of the transforming power of love, let alone the source of all love.

As Catholic parents, it is Krazyglue's and my responsibility to teach our children God's plan for marriage and family life. Long before they hit their teens, they ought to know that love begets babies. And then, as they get into the teen years, they learn from us that sex is for marriage and as such, is holy. When your life revolves around Christ, there is always a framework for figuring out the nuances.

As a snapshot of life in America, Juno is spot-on. And yes, it's good to see new movie makers and script-writers recognizing that a pregnancy is a baby, even if somewhat tenuously acknowledged as when Juno quips, "Pregnancy often leads to infants." The sadness of impermanent marriages is plain to see, too. But we need to be sure that we don't let the humor and sentimentality of Juno lull us into complacency regarding the underlying problem Juno faces in life, and which isn't solved in 91 minutes.

One final note: if you read Nicolosi's review, she says "Juno is for older teens and adults. It has a few bad words and the suggestion of teen sex, but is not crass or coarse." I beg to differ! It is just as crass and coarse as many a teen conversation taking place across America. If you homeschool to keep your teens from seeing condom demos, don't take them to see Juno.