It’s been a week for interesting but uncomfortable movies.
This was an interesting flick. It reminded me of a cross between Napoleon Dynamite’s irritating nostalgia-baiting and Kevin Smith’s painfully hip and rapid fire dialogue. Kids too cool for their shoes babbling on about situations only distantly related to what would be reality. It also made me consider one aspect of contemporary movie-making that bugs the hell out of me and a perspective on popular culture I never considered before.
For starters, when the hell did strong male archetypes disappear from American film? Has there been a full bore, manly man hero since Indiana Jones? Actually, I can think of a couple but the point still stands. Think about this year’s crop of blockbusters. Spider-Man was being a bad guy when he acted like a man. The hero of Transformers was a nebbishy git who happened upon some giant robots and won the girl. Same thing in Juno – the male “hero” is a lanky git with bad dress sense. A prototypical “sensitive” man. What a crock of shite.
OK, now that my alpha-male ranting is out of the way it’s on to the meat of the problem: the whole setup was entirely too cutesy. I am very glad the filmmakers opted to show the seamier side of abortion. I am supposed to believe that the parents were that mellow about the situation? I am supposed to believe that adoption is a no harm – no foul situation? That a sixteen year old girl could carry a child to term, give birth and then hand the kid over to some stranger without so much as a second thought? I will grant that in the context of the movie and in line with my own personal beliefs Juno’s solution was the best one possible but I cannot accept that going through the process as she did would be any less psychically scarring than actually going through an abortion.
It’s an interesting perspective on the abortion debate. One I hadn’t considered before. It’s not a valid argument for one position or the other. In fact, it makes both positions look like the proverbial rock and hard place.
And despite wimpy males, comically understanding parents, kids acting well outside their age group and a Hollywood-ized treatment of a serious subject the flick gave me something to think about. Maybe that’s the mark of a good film.