Has anybody here seen Juno?

[Ryal Kane]

I watched this film today and personally I felt it was the strongest and most touching anti-abortion comment I've seen in a long time.
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]Fundamentalists will hate it.

For those who don't know, the movie (up for best film, script and actress oscar) is about a teenage girl who gets pregnant by her best friend and decides to go through with the pregnancy and adopt to a couple.

The key word here is 'decides'. Abortion is covered early in the film in many different ways, most of them funny in the way only honesty can be. The film doesn't judge it's characters and lets all of them be flawed and fleshed out human beings.

I found the films themes to be about love, forgiveness and acceptance of peoples weaknesses. Three points that the pro-life movement could really use more of.

 

[flicka]

I haven't seen it but my kids both said it was a great movie.

 

[Mumei]

Juno is a decidedly pro-choice movie; the fact that she chooses to keep her child is only incidental. She chose.

 

[Ryal Kane]

Juno is a decidedly pro-choice movie; the fact that she chooses to keep her child is only incidental. She chose.

Agreed. Nobody is pro-abortion, despite the way that some try to frame the argument.
In a perfect world, there would be no need for any abortion.
But we don't live in a perfect world.

 

[FaithLikeARock]

Oh that's nonsense. Nothing good or wholesome can come out of Hollywood. I mean look at Narnia and the Passion. Serious works of the devil right thar.

In all seriousness, I haven't seen it. Don't really plan too. I'm not into High School drama movies. But you can gather something wholesome from almost any movie (except the comedies which run along the lines of Scary Movie-esque and anything with Will Ferrell). But no one cares. For some reason, the bad always outweighs the good, as long as it's something the person can judge. Clearly fundamentalists are incapable of anything evil and so what they do that's bad isn't bad at all.

 

[PassionFruit]

I haven't seen it, but it seems these days Hollywood is shying away from the topic of abortion. In movies like "Knocked Up" and "Waitress."

The only movie I know of that approaches abortion in an honest manner is "Fast Times at Ridgemount High."

 

[Maren]

Oh that's nonsense. Nothing good or wholesome can come out of Hollywood. I mean look at Narnia and the Passion. Serious works of the devil right thar.

In all seriousness, I haven't seen it. Don't really plan too. I'm not into High School drama movies. But you can gather something wholesome from almost any movie (except the comedies which run along the lines of Scary Movie-esque and anything with Will Ferrell). But no one cares. For some reason, the bad always outweighs the good, as long as it's something the person can judge. Clearly fundamentalists are incapable of anything evil and so what they do that's bad isn't bad at all.

Actually, Will Farrell has a couple of good movies. If you haven't seen Stranger That Fiction, it is a good drama. Will plays the main character and has a great supporting cast (Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah, and Maggie Gyllenhaal). He also was in The Producers, his insanity fits in well with the story.

 

[JustMeSee]

I want to see this movie.

Unfortunately, I will probably have to wait for it to come out on DVD. I am curious to see how it compares to Quinceañera.




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[gwenmead]

The only movie I know of that approaches abortion in an honest manner is "Fast Times at Ridgemount High."

Waterland, though thoroughly depressing, uses a medically primitive abortion as a critical element of the story. On the surface there's some standard moralizing about it, but scratch a little deeper and it becomes clear that the madness later experienced by the girl who has the abortion comes in large part from intense, self-inflicted religious shame and guilt.

That's what I got out of it, anyway.

 

[Jacey]

We tried to see it this weekend, got worn out doing other stuff.

I find it interesting that so many xians were on to Bella, a movie that did not review well because of the "liberal" critics (although Roger Ebert gave it ***) and ignored the messages in more mainstream films like Juno and Knocked Up. Hope to see it, maybe this coming weekend.

 

[jayem]

My wife and I saw it. It was a sweet movie. The acting was excellent. Though I thought Juno's dialogue was way too clever and mature for a 16 year old. Which made it hard for me to understand what she saw in her boyfriend who fathered the child. I don't think he even had one whole page of lines in the entire movie, and barely spoke above a whisper. I didn't buy that relationship. No chemistry there at all that I could detect. And maybe I'm jaded, but I thought her father was a bit too perfect. Almost a 50s TV dad in support, acceptance, understanding, and wise counsel. If it were real life, I'll bet her family would have forced her to have the abortion. But then it wouldn't have been a sweet movie.


Edited to add: Did anyone see The Cider House Rules? That's an obvious pro-choice movie. Also a total fantasy, but with sympathetic characters, and also kind of sweet, in it's own way.

 

[Jacey]

Cider House...........who was in that, was that someone like Tobey? All I remember about it was that a father raped his daughter or something

 

[jayem]

Cider House...........who was in that, was that someone like Tobey? All I remember about it was that a father raped his daughter or something

Tobey Maguire. Before Spiderman. He played a boy raised in an orphanage back in the 30s. The place was run by a doctor who also performed abortions on the down low. The doctor sort of adopted Tobey's character, and taught him medicine. And, though unlicensed, he takes over the doctor's practice. There's also a romantic interest with Charlize Theron, but, like I said, it's a fantasy.

 

[FaithLikeARock]

My wife and I saw it. It was a sweet movie. The acting was excellent. Though I thought Juno's dialogue was way too clever and mature for a 16 year old. Which made it hard for me to understand what she saw in her boyfriend who fathered the child. I don't think he even had one whole page of lines in the entire movie, and barely spoke above a whisper. I didn't buy that relationship. No chemistry there at all that I could detect. And maybe I'm jaded, but I thought her father was a bit too perfect. Almost a 50s TV dad in support, acceptance, understanding, and wise counsel. If it were real life, I'll bet her family would have forced her to have the abortion. But then it wouldn't have been a sweet movie.


Edited to add: Did anyone see The Cider House Rules? That's an obvious pro-choice movie. Also a total fantasy, but with sympathetic characters, and also kind of sweet, in it's own way.

Opposites attract? There's a lot more to a relationship than just "chemistry".