One key dynamic in almost all movies is the Protagonist going through some sort of emotional development. Most often, this is typified in a Protagonist [P]-Attractor [A] relationship or relationships. Juno is no exception. The way I read it, Juno has two Attractors: They are Paulie and Mark. For purposes of analysis, let's call Paulie the Light Attractor and Mark the Dark Attractor [speaking metaphorically with Light being enlightenment and dark being about impulses and instincts more tied to the P's Disunity]. Paulie gets Juno pregnant, which creates all sorts of issues for the young people, friction and conflict which in effect drives them apart. Contributing to their split is Juno's infatuation with Mark. She's into music, he's a musician. She's into horror films, so is he. She's into being cool, so is he. Plus there's this: He seems like an adult. And that is, as I noted in my comments on Monday, the pull that is going on with Juno, who has tried to bypass adolescence and move straight into adulthood. So rationally, there is no basis in a possible romance between them: Juno is pregnant, and by another guy; Mark is married and to become the adoptive father of Juno's yet-to-be born child. And yet Juno's pull toward cool adult things draws her toward Mark. Now the dark side: Mark is not grown-up, in fact he's still an adolescent. So as Juno realizes - bitterly - her 'dream' guy is not on her wavelength at all, but a flawed illusion. Deciding to leave Vanessa also proves he's unworthy as a lover and he even admits he's not ready to be a father. So this crushes Juno and is the apex of her All Is Lost moment at the end of Act Two. Meanwhile there is Paulie. He is a teenager and comfortable with it. Throughout Act Two, this is something Juno holds against him [that and her pregnancy, a significant bit of projection on her part considering she was a willing partner in the act of intercourse]. But the shock of what Mark does as a Dark Attractor makes her realize that, in fact, she does really dig Paulie. As she says in V.O. on the next to last page of the script: "As boyfriends go, Paulie Bleeker is totally boss. He is the cheese to my macaroni. I know people are supposed to fall in love before they reproduce, but normalcy’s not really our style." In the end, the Light Attractor wins out over the Dark Attractor. Both are important components to Juno's emotional growth in the story. What about the other primary characters in the script? What's your take on them?

For me, something that stands out about 'Juno' is how essential all of the characters are. Not a single one wasted, and I think that's a hallmark of any good script. Liberty Bell doesn't serve much purpose beyond helping define Juno's family situation and draw a parallel to Juno's pregnancy, so she doesn't get a speaking part. There are very few minor characters in this script, and none of them outstay their welcome. I think the most surprisingly effective characters are Mark and Vanessa, the latter in particular. An ostensibly cold, career-minded woman desperate for a baby and a commitment-phobic husband sound like stock, 2D characters, but they don't come across that way at all. This is one of those situations where I find it difficult to divorce (pardon the pun) the actors who played the roles from what I read on the page, because Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman were so perfectly cast. It's hard to know what I would have made of these characters had I read the script before seeing the film, but I'd like to think they would have stood out as a cut above how such characters are typically represented in your average screenplay. The same goes for several other characters - Leah, Mac, Bren. Leah is your typical comic-foil best friend, but because the writing's so good she comes across as something more. With Bren and Mac, I think Cody made distinctive choices to differentiate them from the stereotypes. Bren is not the hateful, antagonistic stepmother we might expect to find, whereas Mac is anything but a domineering father. So somewhere between spinning away from obvious choices putting a fresh slant on stereotypes, Cody manages to create rounded, believable and sympathetic characters that stick in the memory.