Gilmore Girls Meets Little Miss Sunshine (Dude, Just Get The Abortion Already)
Posted by Contrarian on December 26th, 2007
I have to say that I didn’t tear up or choke back anything in the final scenes of Juno, like A.O. Scott says he did; the film was too glib and slick to be believable — not to mention unfunny (not that it was unfunny, but it wasn’t consistently humorous, just grating like someone who makes a lot of quips can sound “funny” but not really be all that funny because their onslaught of quips is too annoying).
I recognized Juno’s punk rock-esque ideology — a sort of “take responsibility” kind of thing espoused by young men and women who are too young to unpack what taking responsibility really means. I distinctly remember someone long ago saying something along the lines (it could have been in real life, it could have been in a documentary — I don’t remember at this point) of if she is willing to spread her legs (this person’s words, not mine), she’s willing to have the baby (you can see an extreme example of this thinking here). I feel pretty sure that the screenwriter knew/heard/maybe even believed something similar (and Gilmore Girls is a lite version of this ideology).
The thing is, have you ever seen pregnant 16-year-olds? It’s not all K-records and Moe Tucker (oh, and that soundtrack was so cloying . . .)! Which is why I think Juno kind of sets a bad example . . . the thing I took away from it? Dude, don’t be a martyr — get an abortion . . .
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Saw the movie today and I had a similar reaction. I found it a bit more endearing than you, I think. But the abortion thing is glossed over in an odd way. I mean, are we really supposed to believe that she carries this baby to term because the other people in the clinic waiting room are scratching their fingers too loudly? (and the scene where she first confronts her parents was heavily edited, I thought. Focus groups, perhaps?).
Of course, you could chock this up to the plot. Like with Knocked Up, she has to have the baby, or there’s no movie. So they fudge the “decision scene” and make her have the baby. However, if we see one more of these movies, we’ll have a trend, and then we can’t simply write it off to chance.
I forgot to mention that the scene that actually made me (well, almost) tear up wasn’t at the end but rather in the middle, when Jennifer Garner hugs Jason Bateman after meeting Juno for the first time. That was so human — and out of place in the movie! — that it kind of got me a little . . . so I don’t want to make it seem like I was bah-humbugging the whole time.
Re: the plot — yes — I was talking to Mrs. Contrarian about it. She said “The problem I have with this movie and Knocked Up is that they unabashedly glorify having a baby, and thus subtly demonize not having a baby. 1 in 4 pregnancies end in abortion in the good ol’ USA, so why don’t even 1 in 100 movie pregnancies? Get real, Hollywood!”
But obviously good stories are about drama and reversing expectations, and it wouldn’t be dramatic if she got pregnant and decided to abort the baby . . . plus, we always have Dirty Dancing and Fast Times at Ridgemont High for balance!
She carries the baby to term because her protester friend helps her realize that fetuses have fingernails . . . thus the fake fingernails in the waiting room (it’s kind of a dirty scene — makes you think that Jason Reitman is kind of tongue-clucking conservative in that way).
Re: the trend — does Waitress count? http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20071213/COLUMNIST18/269281610/1014