What does a sixteen year old do when she becomes pregnant? That’s the focus of Juno, a movie which explores how a young girl (named Juno) responds to her unexpected pregnancy.
It’s received very positive reviews: "smart, funny, and charming", "one of the brightest and funniest comedies of the year", and "that smart, hip, human comedy you’ve been waiting for all year". I personally think it’s enjoyable and witty; although the relationship between lead character and her dorky guy boyfriend sets up unrealistic expectations for dorky guys everywhere! And while I agree with the reviewers when they call this film witty, calling it smart is only a half-truth. While the characters may make good choices, they also may do so for poor reasons.
In the film Juno plans to have an abortion, and takes a cavalier attitude toward it. However, a simple comment from her schoolmate that the unborn child developing inside her "has fingernails" leads her to keep the baby. It was not rational argument but a gut-reaction that convinced her to do so. This is a common theme in the film: reason is secondary to emotion. The characters are extolled for making ‘heart’ decisions rather than ‘head’ decisions.
Could this emphasis on the heart, irreverent to careful thought, be a problem in modern Western society? Wouldn’t we be better off to try to carefully balance the "head" and the "heart’ on important issues like abortion?
Is the Bible the Word of God?
Was Jesus married, and also a father?
I think that any decision made in a rational state of mind has to take into account the emotional side of the problem. I don’t think you can disconnect the two, I think that when you make a rational decision you would take into account all aspects, to me thats a clear, well, thought-out decision. I don’t think you can clearly think through a problem without thinking about all aspects.
When you deal with the issue of Life and abortion, we all want to say that we would let our mind control our decisions but sadly I think that the emotional side has a major role in this. And however simple the comment about fingernails may sound, when you have that child inside you something that simple could sway your decision. But being 4 months pregnant my view might be skewed