'Juno': Under the radar gem

"Juno" the movie is well-written, well-paced and well-acted. Juno the girl is witty, sarcastic, funny, strong -- and pregnant.

Screenwriter Diablo Cody's wickedly funny script makes this movie more enjoyable than I expected. Ellen Page plays title character Juno MacGuff, a quirky teenager, in the film by director Jason Reitman, but she does so in a way I've rarely witnessed before.

The simple yet somehow intricate story scrambles your responses with such zest that you regret it ending. Twenty-year-old Canadian actress Page grabs the title role in both tiny fists and runs away with it. Juno is reflexively sarcastic, but Page's uncannily expressive performance reveals the uncertainty behind the girl's pose.

Our heroine gets pregnant during her first sexual encounter. Sixteen, grunge-cute and hyperarticulate, she flips open her hamburger phone and declares, "I'm calling to procure a hasty abortion." There are probably a thousand ways a movie could have conveyed that information, but this smart comedy has a knack for picking the funniest, freshest wisecrack available. The premise could have spawned a dire Hallmark movie. But instead of a sugary sermonette about responsibility and redemption, "Juno" delivers uproarious laughs, fully fleshed personalities, honest uplift and tender moments when the throat goes dry and the eyes grow moist. I laughed out loud, something I have not done for a long time at a movie.

Juno changes her mind about an abortion when a fellow teen, who happens to be solo-picketing the woman's clinic, points out that Juno's fetus probably has fingernails already. As Juno fills out forms in the clinic's waiting room she suddenly become conscious of all the nail biting, tapping and clicking of the women (Reitman has the sounds come together in a kind of heartbeat) and Juno bolts for the door. To which the elated young picketer says "God appreciates your miracle."

Juno's relationship with her parents is one of the best things in the movie. For once, we get parents who genuinely love their child and respect her decisions. They can also joke with her without trying to be like a hip contemporary. They remain parents, and they are concerned about their child. Juno accepts their concern as a show of love rather than as annoying prying into her private life. The bottom line is they care about her and she can talk to them about anything.

Michael Cera ("Superbad") plays the child's father, nerdy track star Paulie Bleeker, with his trademark "who, me?" look of male adolescent sexual embarrassment, but gives it more feeling than ever before.

The key to the movie is Juno's evolving relationship with infertile yuppies Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner). Vanessa is prim and repressed while Mark, who introduces himself with, "I'm the husband," seems to have the emotional depth of a sitcom sidekick. But "Juno's" characters are endlessly surprising.

"Juno" has its flaws, to be sure. The characters sometimes speak with a single voice -- even the neighborhood druggist talks like the wisenheimer teens -- and most of the folks on-screen can't clear their throats without inventing a kooky metaphor. Juno's hard-rocking taste in music is at odds with the soft soundtrack. But such minor failings scarcely matter. "Juno" invites you into a world you won't want to leave.