When you stop to think about it, Jason Reitman’s “Juno” represents an incredible film endeavor – a cutesy PG-13 comedy about teenage pregnancy. It poses the question, “Am I OK with this?”

Apparently, I am.

It all started out, as young Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) informs us, with a chair – a brown easy chair to be exact – upon which the 16-year-old recently lost her virginity with her mild-mannered boyfriend, Bleeker (Michael Cera).

Weeks later, Juno is staring confusedly at that same piece of basement-den furniture sitting out on her front yard, chugging on a gallon container of orange juice. We learn minutes later she is gearing her bladder up for another round at a pregnancy test, hoping the first one was defective.

When there’s no more denying the bun’s in the oven, Juno picks up her plastic hamburger phone to call her girlfriend with the messed-up news, reacting not with dramatic tears but with droll wit and frankness.

“I’m forshiz up the spout,” she says.

Juno toys with the idea of an abortion, but after an unsettling experience at the clinic, switches to plan B. She decides to tell her parents and give the baby up for adoption.

Juno’s dad, played similarly frank and sarcastic by J. K. Simmons, accompanies his daughter to the neatly suburban residence of a 30-something couple, Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark (Jason Bateman), who placed an adoption want ad in the local “Penny Saver.”

She’s a prim, professional woman, almost obsessively pining to become a mother. He, on the other hand, appears a little more laid back about the whole fatherhood prospect.

There are some great performances here, including Cera as the goofy track-athlete father whose only vice is an addiction to orange Tic Tacs. He comes off similar but different enough from his role in this year’s “Superbad,” another smartly crafted but more typical teen comedy.

But at the center of it all is Juno. And, honestly, what’s not to love about Juno? From the mind of screenwriter Diablo Cody, Page certainly charms us with a girl that is sweet, playful, independent and vulnerable who maintains an intelligent sense of humor that truly sets her apart.

Through the character’s contemplative mind, the film opens new perspective to a subject normally couched in stereotypes and hackneyed phrases. Juno, who may only have gotten pregnant in a moment of boredom, doesn’t know how to react to the term “sexually active.”

Almost neatly coinciding with the celebrity news frenzy of 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears’ recent baby-on-the-way announcement, there’s plenty to analyze about this arguably pro-life fiction from a purely cultural standpoint. That’s all for another article.

This is the story of Juno, who we follow through the up-and-down seasons of pregnancy right up to the inevitable moment (and possibly my new favorite shot in all of film).

So, again, what’s not to love? Not much. Other than the snappy dialogue, it didn’t generate as many genuine laughs as it seemed to be trying for.

Is it amusing? Definitely, yes. Is it hilarious? Sadly, no.

Oh well. Maybe other people will have more success in the gut-busting department. It’s still a darn good flick that could easily grow on me … or in me, as it were.

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Flynn Espe is a reporter for the East Oregonian.