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I’m not usually a fan of the way adoption is portrayed in movies. Sensationalized, dramatized and filled with stereotypes, I usually feel like banging my head against the wall, retching or a combination of both before the movie even hits the mid-point. Unfortunately, a new movie set to hit theaters this holiday season doesn’t seem to be looking any better than the normal Lifetime variety. I’m prepared to be fully annoyed.
The movie, Juno, is about a sixteen year old mother-to-be facing an unplanned pregnancy who decides to place her child through private adoption. I’m somewhat intrigued as the descriptions on various websites, including the MySpace page, include quotation marks around the word “perfect” when describing the set of parents that the main character finds to parent her child. Does this mean that things go horribly awry? In what way?
I don’t have high hopes, despite the star laden cast that includes Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. Why?
Take a look, for example, at how Juno is described on the International Movie Database ( IMDB ) website:
Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes an unusual and bizarre decision regarding her unborn child.
Say what? Unusual and bizarre? That’s how the decision to place a child for adoption is now being talked about in today’s society? Granted, the decision to place isn’t common place (nor do I believe it should be as parenting should always be a mother’s first option leaving adoption as a final resort) but bizarre? They couldn’t have come up with a better word? Unique, for example, would imply a positive reaction. Bizarre has negative connotations smeared all over each letter of the word. I could even see unorthodox! Or different (as adoption is a different path than parenting). Or unexpected! But bizarre?
Of course, a review by Roger Ebert gives a bit more insight than any other websites are offering up at this time.
The hopeful adoptive couple (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) are the opposite of what you’d expect, and then turn out to be the opposite of that. And the whole story is textured within a school year that focuses the growing-up that Juno has to do.
Beyond being annoyed that they’ve made the expectant mother considering placement to be a teenager (going against the average age statistics of mothers who choose to place), I am intrigued by Ebert’s description of the potential adoptive couple. I do want to know how they’re shown (is it also stereotypical?) and what exactly happens (does this film really speak to the unethical horrors that we know exist in today’s adoption system?).
Unfortunately, the worst part of the movie, in my personal opinion, is the release date in the United States. The date? December 14th. Right in time for the holidays which is, no doubt, a ploy to make money. However, as many other birth parents can attest to, the holidays are not an easy time. Seeing a movie displayed on commercials and billboards that focuses on the hardest time of your life during the hardest few months and weeks of your year doesn’t seem like a good meshing of topics to me. (And on a personal note, the release date is exactly one day after the Munchkin’s birthday. Oh, joy of all joys! Holiday emotions plus birthday emotions exacerbated by the media presence of a mainstream adoption movie.) I think any other time of year would be easier for birth parents to swallow.
That said, the question looms: Will I see it? Probably not in the theater, to be honest. I’ll have a breastfeeding baby and will most likely be in survival mode regarding adoption issues during the hectic holiday/birthday season. I think this is one that I will watch in the comfort of my own home so that I won’t disturb a theater full of people with my sobbing. Nothing like a birth mother to bring down the mood.
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For more, read:
1. Adoption in the Movies: The Italian.
2. Charlotte’s Web.
3. Without a Trace: Birth Mother Coming Out.
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Photo Credit.
I just saw the preview on Petunia’s blog (http://stupidstuffithink.blogspot.com/2007/09/juno-adoption-movie-i-will-have-to-see.html).
I’m wondering if the “bizarre decision” ends up to be parenting the baby. (Which opens a whole ‘nother can of worms, semantically.)
Or something besides the 3 options we usually think of. Could there be another?
I think I’ll see it just because it reunites two actors from Arrested Development. Loved that show.
BestLight; That would open a whole ‘nother can of worms, wouldn’t it? Now I’m even MORE fearful of the movie. Perhaps I’ll go into hibernation starting with the Munchkin’s birthday and come back after the holidays are over. I wonder how long I could exist without internet, television, radio, or, ya know, leaving the house.
I read the “bizarre” thing as her decision to choose a family who advertised in the Penny Saver.
I do plan to see it, because it looked like there were some interesting characters and I’m curious to see what they do with them. You will be something sooooo much more important (and more tiring!) than watching some movie- we’ll happily wait for a dvd rental review at a later date!