Blu-ray Review: Juno

Note: Juno will be released on Blu-ray disc on April 15.

THE MOVIE: 5 stars out of 5

Juno is a wonderful, charming and very witty comedy about of all things, teen pregnancy. It features an incredible and very original screenplay by Diablo Cody, whose Oscar was well deserved as she totally brings these characters to life. The film traces the emotional and physical journey of a 16 year-old who becomes pregnant and after a brief flirtation with thoughts of an abortion, decides to have the baby and arranges a private adoption with a well to do suburban couple. The dialogue here besides being very funny is all so real coming out of the mouths of these characters on screen. All of the performances are wonderful with Ellen Page just shining as the lead character Juno. In fact, her performance is so good and so natural, that you can’t imagine any other actor playing her role after you finish viewing the film. Special kudos also to the director, Jason Reitman, who follows up Thank You for Smoking with another stellar effort as director. I can’t really praise this film enough. Very highly recommended.

THE VIDEO: 4 1/3 stars out of 5

Juno is encoded with AVC and presented in its original aspect ratio of 1:85:1 on a 50 GB dual layer disc. In addition to the high def version of the film, this two disc set comes packed with a standard def digital copy which can be downloaded to your laptop or portable video player. This is a great idea as you can now take a copy of the film with you on the road, even if you don’t have a laptop equipped with a Blu-Ray drive.

As for the video quality, it is very good but not up to the levels of the best looking transfers. The film features a bold color palette which is skewed to the color gold, especially the skin tones which have a golden tone about them. Black levels are solid and fairly deep. The biggest drawback here is in the level of detail which I found to come up a bit short. I also found the film to have a slightly soft look and lacking the total three dimensionality of the best looking transfers. It just does not have that looking through the window quality of the best looking transfers. Don’t get me wrong, fans of the film will be thrilled at the video presentation here. It does look very good, just not up to the level of the best transfers, coming up a tad short in the level of detail and clarity that are the hallmarks of those transfers that have garnered a 5 star rating.

THE AUDIO: 4 stars out of 5

Juno is encoded with DTS HD Master Audio and has a ice pleasing audio track. As one would expect with a dialogue driven film, the audio here is concentrated in the front three channels with little use of the surrounds. There is little here in the way of ambiance or immersion in the sound field. However, the audio is presented with excellent fidelity. The sound is smooth, open and full without a hint of shrillness. Bass extension is also good but not great, not that there really ever needs to be. Dialogue is very natural sounding and clear and distinct. One never misses a syllable of dialogue which is important given how good the dialogue is here. The musical score is presented with a nice mellow laid back sound which fits the mood and tone of the film perfectly. Don’t go into this one expecting pyrotechnics as you won’t find any in the audio department, just in the dialogue, which suits me just fine.

IN CONCLUSION

This is a wonderful film which features excellent writing, acting and directing with good video and audio to boot. Very highly recommended.

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