JUNO SETTING ESSAY
Describe an important setting in your text.
Explain how visual and verbal techniques used to show that important setting helped you to understand a key idea (or ideas) in the text.
In the film Juno, directed by Jason Reitman, one of the main settings was the Loring’s house. Juno, the title character, is sixteen years old and pregnant. She had chosen the Loring’s to be the adoptive parents. The contrast of visual and verbal techniques of props, lighting and dialogue helped me to understand the key idea of family that is highlighted throughout the film.
The setting of the Loring’s house in Juno is important as it highlights the idea Juno has of the perfect family. She, herself, comes from a broken family. Juno lives with her Dad, Step Mum and half sister, Liberty-Bell. Her mother sends her a cactus grab “which stings less than [her] abandonment” every year. Juno wants her baby to be adopted into a loving family with two present parents. The Loring’s house is the setting where this idea of family is examined closely.
Lighting is used to create the mood setting of the Loring’s house.
It is always lit with cool light, very white washed light, and it is often lit from outside.
This seems to create a colder atmosphere which foreshadows their separation due to the strain in their marriage. This lighting is more important when we see it contrasted with the lighting in Juno’s house which is warm, golden light, and is mostly lit from within the room by soft lamps. This indicates that although Juno’s family is an amalgamated one, there is real love, happiness and care there. The setting of the Loring’s house, and the use of lighting, helps us to realise Juno’s idea of the perfect family may be flawed.
Props are used to show the idea of family within the setting of the Loring’s house.
Their house is decorated with tasteful pieces, just a few very good pieces. There are flowers in vases, studio photos of the couple and all props are very tidy and perfectly arranged.
As Juno looks at these decorations she sees that the Loring’s have the money to provide such a good life for her unborn child. However, these props suggest a fakeness to us as the viewer. It looks like Vanessa has copied the House and Garden Magazine to create her house. We can’t imagine a baby there cluttering it up. The photos of the couple look like forced happiness. Again, the props used in this important setting seem to indicate to us that the Loring’s may not be the perfect family Juno thinks they are.
Dialogue is used to highlight how important setting and family can be to our sense of being home.
When Juno is at the Loring’s she comments that she is “allergic to fine home furnishings” which shows she is starting to understand that the house, and its furniture are not what makes a family. In contrast, when she arrives home to her own house she says “I never realise how much I like being home unless I’ve been somewhere really different for a while.”
Again, this comment seems to be reflecting on the important setting of the Loring’s house and her realisation that her own family, in their little house may be superior to the Loring’s in their big mansion.
In conclusion, the Loring’s house in Juno, directed by Jason Reitman, is a very important setting. The visual and verbal techniques of lighting, props and dialogue help to show us the idea of family that is highlighted in this setting. The contrast between Juno’s house and the Loring’s house further aids our understanding of this idea.