What does a sixteen year old do when she becomes pregnant? That’s the focus of Juno, a movie which explores how a young girl (named Juno) responds to her unexpected pregnancy.
It’s received very positive reviews: "smart, funny, and charming", "one of the brightest and funniest comedies of the year", and "that smart, hip, human comedy you’ve been waiting for all year". I personally think it’s enjoyable and witty; although the relationship between lead character and her dorky guy boyfriend sets up unrealistic expectations for dorky guys everywhere! And while I agree with the reviewers when they call this film witty, calling it smart is only a half-truth. While the characters may make good choices, they also may do so for poor reasons.
In the film Juno plans to have an abortion, and takes a cavalier attitude toward it. However, a simple comment from her schoolmate that the unborn child developing inside her "has fingernails" leads her to keep the baby. It was not rational argument but a gut-reaction that convinced her to do so. This is a common theme in the film: reason is secondary to emotion.
The characters are extolled for making ‘heart’ decisions rather than ‘head’ decisions.
Could this emphasis on the heart, irreverent to careful thought, be a problem in modern Western society? Wouldn’t we be better off to try to carefully balance the "head" and the "heart’ on important issues like abortion?
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