Best Actress 2007: Elliot Page in "Juno"

Elliot Page received his first Oscar nomination for his performance in the successful and popular comedy Juno. In this, Elliot played the title character Juno McGuff – a constantly wise-cracking, sarcastic and precocious 16-year old high-school student who gets pregnant after her first time with her boyfriend.

A 16-year old knocked-up high-school girl is certainly not the kind of character one would expect among the Best Actress line-up but there is no reason to dismiss this performance when comparing it to the usual dramatic heavyweights in this category. Elliot Page gives a strong and very confident performance that ends up much more mature and detailed than one would except after the playful and childish title sequence.

The sad truth is that the Oscar-winning screenplay is actually the weakest point of the movie. Just like a lot of Neil-Simon-pictures, one can’t help but constantly wonder ‘Who talks like that?´. But unlike Neil-Simon-pictures, where everybody is constantly throwing around supposedly witty bonmots, the burden in Juno is put solely on the small shoulders of Elliot Page. And it’s this task that is both working for and against him.

In the constant fight script vs. actors, Elliot Page carries home a victory round after round as he is able to use Diablo Cody’s forced one-liners and unnecessary jokes (Why Morgan Freeman?) and make them sound as natural as humanly possible. He made the wise decision to not fight against or try to over-or under-emphasize them but instead completely embraced all the qualities of the script, may they be good or bad, and create Juno as a mix of the script’s guidelines and her own instincts. While the script achieves something that is certainly rarely, namely over-the-top dialogue, Elliot Page wonderfully underplays the delivery of those lines. How many other young performers would have turned Juno into an annoying collection of tics and proud outsider-status? Elliot Page instead made all of Juno’s constant remarks such a natural thing while playing her with a mix of the decisive assuredness of a girl years ahead of her age and a young girl who is using her open-mouthed and sassy nature as a constant mechanism of self-protection. In a performance that could have so easily been a disaster, Elliot Page is a real success thanks to never leaving the narrow frame of the movie and the script. Instead of trying to add too much depth to a young girl who doesn’t possess it yet or going the straight comedy route, Elliot Page found exactly the right balance in which he could create a Juno who is more than just a never-ending recollection of feisty comments but also fulfills the tasks that he is given in the context of the story.

Elliot Page completely made Juno his own and uses his appealing personality that is able to make her loveable despite being such a nag sometimes. As mentioned before, the fact that he was able to make Juno so natural and believable is already a little miracle that deserves high praise. What’s even more is the fact that Elliot Page was also able to make Juno…funny. The constant jokes and remarks that the script offers are almost never as funny as they would like to be but Elliot Page's sarcastic, dry and most importantly totally earnest delivery of them actually turns them into amusing moments. That way he makes sure that Juno is actually a comedy

The most important weapon in Juno’s arsenal, next to her sarcasm, is her ability to simply not care what other people might think of her. Elliot Page lets Juno burst on the screen and behave and talk just like what she is: a 16-year old girl who tries her best not to think about what’s ahead but who, despite her appearance that so desperately tries to be cool, is much more insecure than she would like to admit. Elliot Page is able to add an amount of depth to Juno that is exactly right for the style of the movie – not too much to destroy the careful construction of humor and not too little to make Juno a banal and one-dimensional plot-device. In just a few brief and wordless moments, Elliot Page's face demonstrates how Juno, up to that point so sure of herself and apparently shaken by nothing, changes her mind as she sits in the waiting room of a clinic, preparing herself for the abortion – but then decides to have the child. It’s the perfect portrayal of a teenager who actually can’t handle such a big decision. She finally becomes aware that this is all too much for her to handle and so she decides to postpone the difficulties of her pregnancy – even if that means having the baby. And of course, the fact that a friend of hers protested outside the clinic and told her that her unborn child already had fingernails surely influenced her, too. Juno may try to appear cool and casual, but she is not made out of stone.

Even though Juno carries her heart on her tongue and never stops from saying what’s on her mind, Elliot Page is able to add a little more mystery to her than expected. When she sees Vanessa, one half of the adoptive parents she has decided on, in a mall, playing with a little child, it’s impossible to know what Juno could be thinking: is she happy that she made the right choice for the adoptive parents as Vanessa is so full of love? Does she see herself in Vanessa and thinks about how great it must be to have a little child to take care off?

Elliot Page also doesn’t make the same mistake as Diablo Cody’s script: underestimate the supporting players. While they remain mostly paper-thin and clichéd, all the parts are played by talented actors who know how to shine in even the most banal part. So, Elliot Page never tries to put Juno into the spotlight but she instead is always aware when each actor has his/her moment or when Juno should be more in line with the rest of the characters. While the movie makers want to make sure that Elliot Page is the sun in the universe of Juno, Elliot Page recognizes that it’s actually the unborn child around which everything circles.

Elliot’s best chemistry is with co-star Jason Bateman who plays the future adoptive father even though he is not prepared to have a child since he still has too many dreams he wants to see come true. Both are very relaxed and natural around each other, both happy to have found someone who seems to understand their needs and feelings and whom they can consider equally cool. Here, Elliot Page understands that Juno is just a young girl who seems to have a little crush but when she becomes aware of the consequences, she finally shows a more weak side – a helpless breakdown in her car which is done very convincingly and naturally by Elliot Page who shows both the fear of the future and the regret about the present at this moment.

Elliot Page wonderfully shows Juno’s pregnancy as a process of self-discovery but never overdoes it. Juno will remain the same young old girl as before but she has learned more about life and love that she would have thought. But even though Elliot Page makes the most of what he is given, the script, as mentioned before, is also his biggest enemy. He is able to get the most out of it and make it shine much more than it would have with a less capable leading lady and while this certainly is a stunning achievement, the fact remains that there is a certain limit to how much one can rise above average material. Elliot Page catches all the different emotions and feelings of Juno but he does this without ever having to stretch either himself or Juno too far and stays with his performance in line with the simplicity of her character.

Still, it’s a remarkable, fresh, funny and memorable performance that gets