Lars and Juno

About a month ago we watched Lars and the Real Girl. If you haven't heard about it, it's about a guy who orders a life size doll and then refers to the doll as his girl friend. His friends and family have to figure out how to treat Lars and the doll, as well as why he's refering to a doll as his girlfriend. It makes for a quirky comedy, but in the end was a very sweet comedy. There were times when I wasn't sure if I should be laughing, but I think it was one of those movies where the director and screen writer use laughter to approach difficult life situations. It's no Dan in Real Life, and but it also wasn't so predictable, which can make it both scary and fun since you never know if something shocking is going to happen.

This week we watched Juno, which maybe wasn't the best idea given our recent experience with adoption because on the surface this movie was a bit flippant about teen pregnancies and adoption. In fact, my experience with this movie is probably quite different from the run of the mill reaction. I don't usually watch movies twice, but with Juno I did. The dialogue was a bit too clever at times and even hard for someone reared in the slow-talking South to follow. But this movie got a few things just right and ended up being a very cathartic experience for me. I loved how Juno's almost crass attitude towards her pregnancy is briefly juxtaposed against Vanessa's (the adoptive mother) own hurt over not getting to be pregnant. And every time I watch the part where Juno goes into labor, I start crying because I can't help but think of our birth mom and all she went through for us and for Anna. This movie is more about the relationship between two people that happens to develop while one is pregnant, but for me it had a deeper relevancy, which is why I watched it twice.

BTW: I'm making real progress on War and Peace. Only about thirty pages before I hit the epilogue and then about 150 pages left of that.