Jenny, Juno: When You're Young and In Love

"Jenny, Juno" created waves when it was shown in Korea early this year. Basically because of the sensitive nature of its topic: teen pregnancy. Being a conservative country like ours, of course they would condone such issue much more sexual freedom among teens! Not to mention that the teen characters were portrayed by actual teenagers. In Hollywood, sexual freedom among teens were highly discussed in Larry Clark's "Kids" and in the much graphic "Ken Park" (it has a Pinoy-American character). This movie received an R-18 but after much uproar from the makers of the movie and some fans, it was toned down to PG-15.

"Jenny, Juno" can basically be divided into three parts. First, Jenny and Juno found out that they were pregnant. They both tried to hide it from their parents fearing that they might abort the baby. For a couple of months, they did what they think is best for the baby. In their innocent ways, they were building their future. However, Jenny's sister found out the truth so eventually, they needed to tell their parents the truth. That being said, the focus has now been shifted to the parents - their initial reactions, their feelings toward their children's situations, their dealings with both side of the families, etc. Third part would be how Jenny and Juno resolve their situation.

"Jenny, Juno" has the makings of a great romantic movie, only that the characters are 15 year olds. All the kilig elements are there that would make you wonder whether, in your teens, would you have done stuffs like that? The lead characters were perfectly portrayed by the actors and were perfectly written. No one would doubt that the love they have for each other is true (at those moments, of course). You would even somehow root for them to be together. Oh, the wonders of young love!

The major problem lies, though, on the parents' side. Their initial reactions were perfectly shown: the anger, the denial, the embarrassment, the bargaining and the eventual acceptance. However, it ended there. The film had treated its subject as if it was a simple Romeo and Juliet type of story. I wouldn't be surprised if young audience would feel like the contravidas in their lives are their parent certainly because they were made to look like that in the movie. Their side of the story wasn't given much depth. They weren't able to talk about the repercussions of teen pregnancy to their children.

What I'm afraid of is the impression that this movie might give to young audience. Raising children by children isn't like raising puppies that only need to be fed and played with. It takes more than that. The film failed to emphasized that or even mention it. Aside from that, what saddens me is that abortion becomes part of the choices. Shouldn't it be not mentioned at all?

Anyway, as a romantic/drama movie, this one had surely soared high! It's great! One of the best, I should say, especially for being so bold in tackling such topic. However though, I'd advised parents to see this films with their teens and not let them get the impressions that teen pregnancy is cool! Despite that, this one tops my favorites list!