Juno

Well, I finally saw Juno. I have to say, I was disappointed. Every youth ministry mag, blog, message board etc. told me I had to see the film. I guess I can understand why; a movie about teens, teen pregnancy, abortion etc. Maybe my expectations were too high? (Though, I have to say I was disappointed that my wife picked Juno instead of Atonement or Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and so my expectations couldn't have been that high. Have any of my 5 readers seen Atonement or Before the Devil...? Leave me a review...I heard Before is supposed to be good, but it was some guy on the radio, so you never know.)

I think my biggest problem with the movie was that I didn't buy the characters. I'm a youth pastor and have been for a little over 10 years now. I've met hundreds (thousands, maybe) of teenage girls and of those hundreds, I've gotten to know...oh I don't know, many let's say, pretty well. I've never met a 16 year old like Juno was portrayed in the film. I didn't buy her dad and step-mom either. I didn't buy that idiot character Jason Bateman played. And, for all the running he did, Paulie Bleeker's legs were pretty unimpressive. (Though that, I admit, is being a bit nit-picky.)

The obvious question is why I didn't buy the Juno character. It wasn't that she was too confident, or too sarcastic, or too savvy but she was a little too much of all of those at the same time. That coupled with wondering if you can even do "want-ad" adoptions and thinking Jason Bateman's character was a loser, left me liking no one in the film. I mean, Juno (the character) was okay, but I can't say I cared all that much about her.

So, yeah, I was disappointed. Maybe I'm getting grumpy in my old age...I dunno.