By Bob Polunsky
Movie Critic

"Juno" makes you laugh and cry at the same time. It's a sentimental film that shatters some of today's most controversial taboos about sex in the cinema. While most of them poke fun at sex or take it too seriously, "Juno" takes it in stride.

Juno McGuff (Ellen Page) gets pregnant by her boy friend, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera), but keeps a level head on her shoulders when dealing with it. True to the attitudes of most teenagers, she thinks she's mature enough to handle any situation, so she doesn't panic.

Instead, she searches for a suitable adoptive couple willing to take on the responsibility of parenting.

It's a big step for a teenager – mature or immature – but Juno doesn't waste time pondering the issue. She picks up the phone to a woman's clinic and nonchalantly tells the operator, "I'd like procure a hasty abortion."

The line gets a laugh, but it's a serious question and an important line of dialogue in the film. It indicates how scared Juno must be. If she weren't, she wouldn't try so hard to be nonchalant.

It's significant to note that the idea of abortion is then dropped, and Juno takes stock of the situation from a different point of view.

She comes to realize she needs moral support in the worst way, but finds it in the best way when her sympathetic father (“Spider-Man” veteran actor J.K. Simmons) and stepmother (Allison Janney of “The West Wing”) help her face responsibility. They give Juno a chance to make a decision that isn't buried in a one-liner just to get a quick laugh. She responds in a way that tells us she has maturity beyond her years.

The movie then becomes a pseudo-joke film about pregnancy like "Knocked Up," another comedy that turned out to be a realistic family drama.

Interaction between characters is the main reason why the film works so well. Unlike most teenage comedies, these folks turn out to be real people with real feelings. They are able to make witty comments that have heart and soul, and not all movies about teenaged pregnancy do that.

When Mark (Jason Bateman of “Arrested Development”) and Vanessa (Jennifer Garner of “Alias”) enter the picture, Juno likes them and takes them into her confidence when they say they are looking for a child to adopt. Juno thinks they would be ideal adoptive parents.

She accepts them at face value without stopping to think about problems that might crop up for herself, for them and for the unborn child. The audience can't sense it either at this point. It's up to the initial humor to set the mood and to the character development of the players to give the characters a unified purpose.

Juno's wise father starts the ball rolling by treating Juno as a blossoming adult. Because of her surprise pregnancy, she no longer qualifies as just a teenager. She has to learn to rely on herself, and he lets her know he will back her up all the way.

The dialogue is thought provoking for everyone concerned, and the clever script covers all the bases. As a result, realistic characters tackle personal problems with a sense of humor that's contagious.

Diablo Cody's script supplies the clever one-liners while director Jason Reitman's comedy timing puts them in perspective. His last film, "Thank You for Smoking," was also a comedy with a serious theme that hit all the right nerves.

Studio rating: PG-13

Bob says: "A mature look at a teenaged problem" ***