Check it: Picasso!



I just finished watching the film Juno for the first time, and it didn't hit me until the second trimester the happy coincidence of watching this particular movie on Mothers' Day. It suits, really.

Now, I know I'm waaaaaay behind on the bandwagon as usual. This is a two-years-ago hit and Oscar-nominated film. So everybody else in the world (possibly the universe) knows how great it is, but I'm still going to share my feelings about it, because it's going down on my running list of "Movies I MUST Have."

There are moments in this film that blew the top of my head off, mainly to do with the interactions between Juno and her parents. J.K. Simmons as her father was irreplaceable by any other actor. His talk with her in the kitchen about happily-ever-after and the little smile on his face as he leaves the conversation still believing that he is and will always be the number one guy in her life. And the moment in the hospital when he strokes her hair and tells her that one day, she will be back in this place in this position, but on her terms. SERIOUSLY. As a daddy's girl, and a woman, that scene is permanently burned on my retinas as one of the best in cinematic history.

Then, my goodness. Young Michael Cera. That sweet thing had me at hello with his skinny legs, gold track wristbands and Hot Pocket fresh out of the micro. I loved him from the start. He did not have as much screen time as the rest, but I think that worked well for his character, as someone being pushed aside as less consequential to the events, but who shows his stuff as the events begin to unroll. Do not mistake his gentleness or uncertainty of his role in the proceedings for weakness. Watch him as he realizes Juno missed his big track meet for a reason, and watch him run away toward her regardless of his meet, his mother, or what anyone thinks. Then watch him hold her as she cries because the mother of their child is taking him away while they lay together. And props to Diablo Cody for making Paulie Bleeker one of the first male characters to say "What should we do?" in the face of the unexpected news.

Ellen Page and the screenplay and everyone in the film is so good it goes without saying. I was pleased with the adoption resolution. I think that it was the best answer from the very start. Allison Janney, as usual, fries up gold everytime she speaks. I loved the scene where she tells off the judgmental radiology tech. Jason Bateman, for someone so vibrant, did an awesome job playing someone downtrodden who long ago pushed aside any ability to sac up and tell his wife that his opinions matter too. And Jennifer Garner, though I was irritated by her character's control freakiness, was heart-breaking as someone who just wants to have a baby. I thought it was cool that they didn't try to tie up the marital issues in a prettier way. This woman was way better off just her and her baby. She would have alienated even a happier marriage by giving all her focus to that purpose.

One of the things about Juno that I thought was so beautiful is that she doesn't want to be a mother and gives her to someone else who is ready, but she is a mother the minute she starts making those kinds of decisions for her child.

It all reminded me that I loved being pregnant and I love being a mother, and that nothing worth having is ever easy and that being a parent is rarely, if ever, glamorous. I have a picture of myself toward the very last month of my "confinement," and I was sooo hot and soooo fat and sooo happy. I don't have much to say that's sentimental today because to me, it's all about making decisions every single day. And the decisions that are, pre-natal, all about you, never can be again because everything you do affects and includes your child. But, at the end of the day and regardless of how brain-wracking those decision can get, I love looking at that picture, and talking to the little voice in my head about how it has felt from the moment I knew that I was going to be able to have my baby.