Living the cliche

On Dec. 25, Jews are supposed to go to the movies and out for Chinese food. Well, I didn't have any Chinese food this year, but I did go to the movies, and it seemed like everyone at the theater was someone I knew.

Totally by coincidence, four of my friends were going to the same showing of Juno as me, so we sat together. Meanwhile, my boss and her daughter were just leaving the previous showing, and another one of my coworkers had stopped by the theater to bring some food for her son, who was working there. I guess that's what happens when you go to a theater in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood on Dec. 25.

Anyway, Juno is a very good movie -- funny and touching and unpredictable. Lots of great lines, lots of great music, and some very poignant moments. The language is a bit crude, but very clever. Also, even though the film is based around a teen pregnancy, and there is no pretending about how that happened, the, shall we say, preceding circumstances are referred to artfully and minimally.

Oh, and as a bonus for Jewish audiences, one character has an alef-beis chart and a dreidel in his bedrooom, which of course set half of the theater today off into whispered conversations of "Was that?" "Yes it was!" Ah, the perfect Jewish moment in a theater on Dec. 25.