Juno and the 3 Act

Juno and the 3 Act Paradigm

In its simplest explanation, Juno is about a teenager who remains pregnant at the age of 16, after her first sexual contact with her friend Bleeker. As she decides to keep the baby and give it up for adoption, she embarks upon finding the best possible family for her baby. In her quest, she passes through several amusing incidents which make her wiser and more acquainted to the challenges life offers.

However, the movie is more than a simple narrative story, it is also about encountering and assuming responsibilities, about understanding the relationship between individuals and the importance of family or friends in offering support in times of challenge. It is also a movie about individual defining themselves as human beings.

Juno is the protagonist of the movie, because most of the actions in the movie revolve around her and she is the engine that generates almost all acts in the movie. She is also the character who coagulates the others around her and determines their trajectories.

2. The role of the first act is to introduce the main characters and the framework of the story, as well as the relationships that are created between them. Additionally, the first act will likely contain an inciting incident and a plot point. The inciting incident is the generator of the entire plot throughout the movie, while the plot point takes the plot in a new direction, reversing the initial course.

In Juno, the first act introduces Juno as the main character of the movie, as well as her friend Rheanna, as well as her father and stepmother. Through Juno's storytelling, we find out about her friend Bleeker and her first sexual encounter with him. We understand there is something wrong with this and find out, as the inciting incident comes along, that Juno has in fact remained pregnant. The exact moment of the inciting incident comes when she takes the second pregnancy test in the shop and the shopkeeper alludes that she might be pregnant.

3. The plot point or turning point at the end of the first act comes as she decides to keep the baby rather than have an abortion (the moment comes when she goes to the abortion clinic, her colleague is protesting in front of the clinic and she has an image which makes her turn back from the desk just as she is about to fill in the form) and to find a good family for her child to grow up into.

The first turning point is extremely important, both for the evolution of the character and for the eventual continuation of the plot. Up to that point, we literally had no plot and no subsequent development of the story, as Juno had decided to give the child up for adoption. With her new decision, we can follow the development of her character as a pregnant woman, the support she receives from her family and friends and the discovery of new characters, especially in terms of the potential future adoptive parents. Additionally, we can also begin to wonder whether or not Juno may decide, at some point of the movie, to keep the baby for herself and we will need to see how her decision not to have the abortion is likely to affect her relationship with Bleeker, the father of her baby.

4. The second act emphasizes more the relationship with the adoptive couple and the way that Juno interacts with them. It also develops from the turning point by analyzing how these two characters act themselves, what their relationship is like etc. The future adoptive father, for example, has many things in common with Juno, including the fact that he enjoys the same type of music as Juno, which makes us wonder whether a relationship between the two may be possible (a relationship between them actually develops, not necessarily as an erotic relationship, but more of a friendship based on common interests and common challenges: both Juno and the adoptive father see themselves as less adapted to the real world, with challenges they have to overcome).

The midpoint is difficult to select, but it may be the fact that Bleeker decides not to take Juno to the prom and makes his mind up to go with someone else. If we consider the fact that Juno's goal, although not known to her at this point, is to end up in the end with Bleeker, this midpoint makes the character seem farthest from reaching her goal.

I think that this midpoint divides the first and second act because of the relationship between Juno and Bleeker. As mentioned, at this point, their relationship seems to no longer have any potential future, while the first act has always left this possibility in the open, as we could still see them interacting in the same manner and getting along.

5. The break-up in the adoptive couple is also essential and we can probably identify this as a second plot point, despite the fact that the previously presented midpoint is also important as a plot point (I have selected this, however, as the plot point because it seems to have more influence on the third act and the eventual finalization of the plot).

The break-up leaves Juno with a serious dilemma, because, as she herself had grown up in a split family (her father had remarried), she wanted to see her child grow up in the perfect, loving family. If the two break up, this seems no longer likely. Again we see the potential perspective that Juno will keep her baby, especially given the support she receives from her father and her stepmother.

We have shown previously that the first plot point was the one that actually triggered the whole development of the plot, because Juno decides not to have an abortion, which leads to her keeping the baby, trying to find an adoptive family and introducing the adoptive couple into the movie. The second plot point leaves serious questions about what will happen with the two adoptive parents who have decided to divorce. The viewer will wonder whether, as they move their separate ways, they will still be able to get the baby, what will be their own trajectories, what will be the influence on Juno and her own linear evolution, etc. Both their storylines are likely to affect act three.

6. The third act results from the second turning point because, despite the couple's divorce, Juno still decides to give the baby up to the adoptive mother, recognizing in her all the necessary qualities for her to make a good mother. The way this develops the act leaves every story element resolved, with Juno being able to start again her life as a normal teenager.

As such, with the baby being given up for adoption to the perfect mother, Juno is able to see that her relationship with Bleeker is more important than she initially may have thought and that his feelings towards her are similar. In an incipient gesture, she fills his mailbox with orange Tic-Tacs, his favourite, and they sort everything out at the track. Similarly, the adoptive mother is shown before at the hospital receiving Juno's baby, along with the message from Juno that she will make a great mother.