Juno--Not Alaska

Jennifer and I went to see the movie Juno last night. This is basically the story of a sixteen year old girl who gets pregnant and the process of dealing with the obvious as well as the relationships around her. The best part of the movie for me, however, had more to do with the four teenage girls sitting behind us.

The movie was adorable, despite the fact that no one wants a kid to have to deal with some of those issues. Several key moments in the movie brought on four simultaneous sighs from the row behind us. With each sigh, you could tell that these girls (I'd guess they were in junior high) were being sucked into the story. They were obviously picturing themselves as the humorously quirky, attractive teenager making the best of being eight months pregnant. You could tell they could almost picture themselves waddling around their school campus, joking with their step mom and chatting with their best friend about gestation and ultrasounds--being pregnant at sixteen was almost cool!

Then came the delivery scene at the hospital. The sighs continued up until the very moment when the baby came out and the nurse held it up--covered in blood and stuff. The rest of us adult-types were quietly taking in the depth of the moment, so the quadruple "eeeeeeeeewwwwaa" from behind us echoed through the room, followed by the instantaneous belly laughter of every woman in the room who had ever given birth.

The movie was really well done. The actress who played Juno, the teenage mother, was fantastic and the theme of the story having to do with the idea that similar interests are far from the foundation of a lasting relationship was well-put. The girls sitting behind us, however, will be why I will always prefer to see a movie in the theater on a crowded Saturday night.

I suppose none of this has much to do with church, however, if you want to get a glimpse of what a culture of authenticity and experiencing life together with real people looks like, Juno actually does a pretty good job. That, or you could show up to the rec center in Durango some Sunday evening and see it for real!