So, I just watched Juno- what is all the controversy over it?

Question

Besides a sonogram technician and an untruthful p-adoptive father, I didn't see anything coersive or bad with it. In fact, I'm happy that the baby ended up with a single mother... since I am one myself. Was there something I missed?

Answer 1

I actually really liked the movie.  I would have liked to see an open adoption, but I am sure that there are people who don't want it.

I don't think it made teens want to get pregnant.  Or atleast I hope not.

Edit:  How can I get thumbs down for stating my opinion?  You people are unreal sometimes.

Answer 2

Well there was an adoption in it, so it is evil. @@

Interestingly my greatest problem with the movie was that I thought that abortion was handled in a strange/silly way.

Theresa- I agree, I think that it's funny that some people react to a movie depicting a pregnancy with more concern than they do about teen movies where sexual behavior is glamorized and never ever results in something so tedious as an actual pregnancy!

Answer 3

People are upset about the teenage pregnancy part and some are upset about the fact that they felt it made having s*x ok for teenagers.  I have heard many different views on the movie and I have to say I just don't get it either.  I love that they showed teenage pregnancy can and does happen and I love that instead of just going to get an abortion the girl took time and did find a "family" for her baby and met them and that even when the marriage had problems she seen just how wonderful the Potential Adoptive mother was and let her be a single mom giving her a great gift of life.  I am sure some didn't like that it was a comedy but it was a mix of many things because life is a mix of many things and emotions.  Really I liked the movie.  

Answer 4

Some people think it glorified teen pregnancy and gave a message that everyone will live happily ever after afterwards

Answer 5

Yes, in the movie they made everything very unrealistic. A biological mother giving up a child was made like it was a piece of cake, when it is not. The parents of Juno were loving and accepting of her, etc. when in real life the opposite happens a lot.  

Answer 6

Of course you wouldn't find anything wrong with it especially when you compare it to your personal experience with adoption.  

Answer 7

I'm not sure there was any controversy over it- really?

I don't remember ever hearing that it was controversial, the only thing i ever heard was that it was a great movie!  

Answer 8

I didn't hear any controversy, really. But I know that some of the same folks who periodically call for boycotts of McDonalds, Disney, and Ford for daring to advertise in a g*y magazine, etc., raged that it would encourage teen pregnancy. (I saw the movie, and some of them said they didn't.. So I think my opinion to the contrary actually has some basis.)

I thought it was a good movie. Not as good as I had hoped, but good. And I don't think it made anything look easy.

Answer 9

I didn't see the big deal either.

There were a few things I would have liked to see handled differently: open adoption, minimal interaction from the baby's father.  It was simplistic in presenting adoption overall, but the entire complexity of adoption is too broad and diverse to address it all in a single book/movie.

I don't think it glamorized teen pregnancy.  I liked in particular how Juno's family were supportive, but still maintained the gravity of the situation.  It was a refreshing change from the angry Bible-thumping condemning parents often depicted in these movies.  

So, a bit simplistic, yes.  Worst movie ever: no.

Answer 10

I didn't like the deceptive marketing.

Answer 11

They made everything look a lot easier than it really is.  People are afraid teens will think "Oh!  getting pregnant really isn't THAT bad, I'll just handle it like Juno did!".

Answer 12

Well I finally watched it online to see what the big hype was...I was very disappointed as I was expecting a great 'story'.

Personally her attitude about the whole thing was very nonchalant like none of it was a huge ordeal.  

The ending sucked with the two still remaining together (not that it's not possible) but again more of a 'fairytale' type of story than reality to me.

Monkey - I can see what you're saying but at the same time I don't see many movies about adoption & didn't even know it was suppose to be a comedy as I don't find the issue to be very funny.  Personally, that actress got on my nerves.

Answer 13

I just saw it a few weeks ago.  I actually enjoyed the movie.  I thought it was entertaining, but obviously not truthful.  There were only a few things I found disturbingly odd...

First - they acted like her being a pregnant teen made her a freak.  Uh, hello, it seems like you can't go anywhere these days without running into one!  I don't think it's the way it should be, but it certainly is the way things are.  I thought that part was a bit unrealistic.  

The second thing I really can't judge from personal experience but..  Didn't it seem a little strange to you that she treated the baby like a basketball she was just carrying around for a while?  I know that some women never consider a baby they are placing as their own true child, but...  well..  it is SOMEONEs child.  To me it seemed like it was hardly more than an annoying tumor to her.  That bugged me a bit.  

The last thing that bothered me was how little involved they had the biological father.  Sure, it probably is that way alot of the time, but did they have to make it that way on a movie they showed to millions?  Couldn't they have made him care at least a LITTLE bit?

Answer 14

I actually liked the movie BUT concluded that it wasn't realistic and gravely lacked emotion.

Answer 15

The only controversy I ever heard was that it encourages teen pregnancy...i didn't see that at all in the movie.  i thought it was great!

Answer 16

Ummm...it was stupid and it made it look like giving up your baby is no big deal...just give it away.

Also, while it is every woman's choice, the girl had family support, they had enough money to help her...they played right into the fact that people who have a lot of money are better parents than people who don't.

And if the argument was to give the baby a two parent family, she didn't.  The baby would have at least had grandpa (and Dad) as they stayed together.

Then they show her and her boyfriend....la la la just gave our baby away, couldn't be happier, la la la .....

STUPID!

Answer 17

I don't have a problem with it as a work of fiction.  But that's all it is, a work of fiction written by someone who is neither an adoptive parent, an adoptee or someone who has relinquished a child.

I find it disconcerting when people try to use it as a real life example.

Taking a work of fiction and using it as a mouthpiece is the definitive form of propaganda and that is a problem for everybody.

I've even seen questions here from young women who want to arrange an adoption "Juno style", ick!

Answer 18

I think Juno was a cute movie for a work of fiction, however it didn't really show how scary an unplanned pregnancy is to a teenager.  The abortion clinic situation was unrealistic and crazy, especially since I know that in Minnesota that underage girls need parents permission to have an abortion (having been, at one point, a 17 year old girl in Minnesota trying to have an abortion without telling my parents).  I don't know how I would have liked them to talk about abortion, but I didn't like they way they handled it.

The last answer on the question I am listing in my source scares me.  

Answer 19

I think it depends on how you receive the movie. If someone was expecting a serious drama or documentary on adoption, I think they would be very disappointed, because it isn't. It's a comedy, and it's not going for deep emotional impact.

I enjoyed Juno for what it was-- a story about a basically flippant teenager learning some lessons about life-- but I didn't take it too seriously or look for deeper adoption truths. The movie just doesn't bear that level of scrutiny.

Answer 20

the controversy is that the movie made adoption seem effortless and without consequence.  sure, the p-afather ditching the mom and the rude U-S tech attempted to tarnish the "love-love" image of the movie; yet, there were subtle messages in the film that trivialized pregnancy, adoption and the impact of adoption on the fmother and child.

questions i have are:

-why did the writers insist on juno wanting to "kick it ole' school" and have a closed adoption?  that is not the trend. yet is covertly advocated for by pro-adoption folks.

-why was she painted as an "irresponsible teen?" not all teens who become pregnant are irresponsible nor "trashy." another stereotype.

-after birth, she didn't wish to see the baby.  that's also not the norm.  many feel that it's best to say "hello before goodbye", except those who want the fmother to fade away into the woodwork. another issue promoted more by the adoption community.

-i also found it ironic that the movie showed her and bleeker having a tender teen moment several week after the birth and adoption.  it read to me as "see, just place your baby and your life will simply go back to normal, as if nothing ever happened."  this is simply not true. what about juno's post-partum healing?  did she mourn for her baby (other than the post-birth crying in bed scene)?  for me, to show such a dramatic and unrealistic birth/relinquishment scene (btw, did she actually relinquish in the hospital???  did she ever go to court?), it seemed a bit slanted to show her happy, bubbly, riding a bike and singing with bleeker, in the next scene.

i don't know.  i'd like to know who produced this movie...and who's hand was in the directing.  it's seems very slanted to me.

i do believe the young actors did a very good job; yet the story sucked.