No Country for Old Men (Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen)
The Nominees: Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood
MY CHOICE:
Juno (Directed by Jason Reitman)
My Nominees: Across the Universe (Julie Taymor), Away From Her (Sarah Polley), In the Valley of Elah (Paul Haggis), No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen), Persepolis (Vincent Parronaud and Marjane Satrapi), Ratatouille (Brad Bird), 3:10 to Yuma (James Mangold)
| A nasty writer's strike nearly sandbagged Oscar's 80th birthday party. No one wanted to cross the picket lines to work on the show and when the nominations were announced in January, Oscar night was a big question mark. The strike had already brought network television to its knees and turned the Golden Globe ceremony from a star-studded event to a half-hour special with two lonely commentators reading results from behind a podium. The strike ended just two weeks before the ceremony and those who tuned in to the annual proceedings were treated to one of the dullest shows in Oscar history. The show may have been dull but certainly not the nominees for Best Picture. For the first time in many years I had nothing to complain about because the five nominees were all smart, intelligent, original and compelling. Out of these diverse choices, the academy finally rewarded The Brothers Coen and fortunately they just happened to have made one of the best films of their career. |
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No Country for Old Men was a quiet, poetic, nicely modulated western about the nature of good guys and bad. It runs circles around the so-called revisionist western boasted by Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven by actually examining the way the law and the killers operate. I admire the film on nearly every level but I must admit that I stand with those who were troubled by the film's abrupt ending. This resulted in a positive but mixed critical reaction.
My favorite film of the year was Juno, a movie that had as many mixed reactions as the Coen's film but, for me, the results were far more satisfying. This is the kind of film that doesn't register on first viewing. It took me at least three to appreciate its fullness. This is one of those human interest stories that builds on fully realized characters and allows their personalities to flow naturally through the progression of the story. By its end we've gotten to know these characters so well that they feel like family.
At the center is Juno Maguff, a pretty 16 year-old, wise beyond her years and possessing a mouth that spins words like comic candy. She is cynical but not hateful, smart but not egotistical, pretty but not ethereal, wise but still unlearned. You notice in her personality, a bright girl who will, with the progression of maturity, grow into a remarkable adult.
In the few short opening scenes we get to know something about Juno and her world. She lives in a lower middle-class family with her father Mac (J.K. Simmons) and stepmother Brenda (Allison Janney). Her best friend is the mousy Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) who vegges on tic tacs and is forever practicing for track. His eyes convey a kind wandering fear of trying to figure out the wider world than most any teenager I've ever seen in the movies. Her best friend is the pretty Leah (Olivia Thirlby) whom she confides in. Leah is a beautiful girl with the same spirit as Juno but maybe not the same wit. All these characters are more than the sum of their parts and are drawn very specifically and given traits that make them more interesting. I love it when a writer gives me a character then adds a little something extra just to make them a little more colorful. Mac has his fishing. Brenda sews and raises dogs. Paulie has an addiction to orange tic tacs. Leah has pet rabbits and lusts after older men (consider that twist she could have had just a cat and lusted after boy bands).
Juno is bold and curious and that, we assume, is the reason she got bored and had sex with Paulie. After three pregnancy tests confirm the drug store cashier's assertion that "your eggo is preggo", her first thoughts turn to abortion. A visit to a clinic quickly changes her mind and, as plan B, she decides to find a nice couple to adopt the baby.
It was an interesting touch to get Juno to the point of considering adoption before she tells her parents. The scene where she breaks the news is so smartly written that I wanted to give Cody and director Jason Reitman a group hug. There isn't the dour dramatic note of an Afterschool special. Note the coldness of the moment when she tells them. The new is brought back by a perfect note as Juno's dad asks about the father, when she tells him it was Paulie, he and Brenda snicker and Mac's perfect delivery "I never knew he had it in him". This scene is special because instead of ranting and raving, there is the concern over the gravity of the situation. There is a perfect sting of heartbreak in Juno's eyes when her dad tells her "I just thought you were the kind of girl who knew when to say when". That would have been a fine but then Juno offers "I don't really know what kind of girl I am." The scene plays beautifully between the heartbreaking reality and bold humor. It is a gamble that pays off.
Juno finds the adoptive couple in a penny-saver. They are Mark and Vanessa Loring, a beautiful couple living in one of those showroom houses where everything is decorated and the place is cleaned within an inch of it's life. At first we assume that Mark and Vanessa are the yuppie-types, career-driven and further driven to show their education and their career status with the objects that populate their house. This is a first glance however and as we move deeper into their home and their lives we understand that they are more complex than they first appeared. We understand their relationship is in the details especially in the fact that Mark's "treasures", the remnants of his truncated dreams of being a rock star, are kept away in one room upstairs. "You have your own room?" Juno gasps and then marvels at his guitar. What emerges is that Vanessa looks to the future, to motherhood while Mark holds tight to his past days in his band and the glimmer of hope of a once-hopeful career goal that has now turned into a more sensible, more lucrative career writing commercial jingles.
The details in Mark and Vanessa's life are crucial because they outline what will ultimately happen and they will become part of Juno's awakening that just because someone grows up doesn't mean they have matured. There are glances and exchanges between Mark and Vanessa the do not speak words but suggest volumes. Notice the look that passes between them when Vanessa tells Juno about a previous adoption that didn't pan out.
What progresses through the film is the growing maturity of most of the characters especially Juno. There's a snarky still-a-kid vibe about her in the beginning and then, as the pregnancy grows and childbirth loom, the tone of her personality changes. Something in this sweet face grows older, tired. Note her energy in the scene where she breaks the news to her family and then notice the weariness in her face when, in the eighth month she has it out with Paulie. "You don't have the evidence under your sweater," she says, "I'm a planet."
What impresses me most about Juno is that Diabo Cody is so confident that she created a compelling lead character that she will keep our interest and our sympathy no matter what she does. She gives her a situation that is not light but is dark, difficult and requires a lot of growing up. Cody could easily have sold the character out and given her a simple-minded problem (prom date, concert tickets, romance, vampires) but by making her pregnant she finds a situation that allows her mature personality to equal those she has to contend with. Most interesting is the way the pregnancy changes almost all of the characters. Cody's script is a beautiful juggling act that combines the heart-tugging moments, the dramatic gravity and the comedy and manages to keep it from being too dark, too light, too schmaltzy or too cute.
I also thought it was a brilliant choice to bookend Juno's story with a motif of chairs. She narrates her story beginning with "It started with a chair" and we gaze upon a big, worn-out comfortable-looking chair. Near the end she tells us "It ended with a chair" and we see a different chair, this time a lovely slimmer, not-so comfortable rocking chair. These two things illustrate the journey our hero has taken, that our security blanket in childhood becomes not-so comfortable when our eyes are open to the realities of the world.
