Juanita

It's an interesting movie to say the least. The characters are flawed yet relatable, and some of the subjects touched on are quite heavy. I like that the solutions are simple and not too far drawn out. I also like that it deals with the struggle of remembering to take care of yourself amidst the various struggles that life throws at you. I liked the concept of the movie, and the actors. I enjoyed some of the more heavy situations, as well as the quirky and carefree ones. However, at times the direction did feel a little "choppy" for lack of a better word. At times, it felt like there were relationships and topics that should have been more fleshed out to ease some of the transitions. By the end, I felt like what I just watched was good enough but there just wasn't enough of it to fulfill me completely.

Juanita (Alfre Woodward) is stuck in a rut: her grown-up kids are serious wasters and her husband is long gone, leaving just her imagination and the elderly patients she nurses for company. When one patient dies, she takes the decision to change her life completely by buying a one way Greyhound ticket to nowhere - well nowhere she's ever actually heard of anyway. She finally lands in a hamlet called Paper Moon and is instantly pressed into service cooking for a Native American at his struggling and theoretically French restaurant.

This story perhaps works better as a novel. The pace is slow and the plot holds few surprises. As another reviewer says here, the movie lacks oomph. Everything is competent - nothing is special. At times it's quite funny and at times uplifting, but never exactly exciting. 6/10

Juanita was such a missed opportunity. It has all the right elements: a great cast, an interesting plot and lots of possibilities for story direction. Instead, it is a rushed, chopped and hurried mess. Juanita should have been a mini-series. This story is about transformation- not just for Juanita; but for all the people she meets on her journey as well. How fun and emotionally satisfying it would have been to be able to spend a little more time with these characters and take the journey with them!

This is a nice picture. Fundamentally it's about second chances and changing your life up. The title character leads a life, you could say, of quiet desperation. A string of not so great husbands, children who take her for granted, and a job that underappreciated her time and effort has left her desperate for a change. So, without a real plan, she gets on a bus and heads...somewhere.

Her accidental journey leads her to the Dakotas, where she finds a new job and a new romance. Still, leery of falling into her old routines with others, she keeps people at arms length. But gradually she finds her trust returning, and even her family life improving as her children learn to survive without her enabling their worst character traits.

This last point is a bit on the rosy side. I mean, in an ideal world leaving people to fend for themselves would end with them taking responsibility for their lives, but there are somewhat less ideal endings to that story. Even so though, I think the story is nice, and an important reminder that we aren't always as stuck in our life as we might sometimes think. Life is long (when it's not being short) and the world is big, and our lives can be what we decide to make of them.

I liked the look of this so settled down to watch it but after it had ended I felt pretty conflicted about the parts I liked and what I didn't like about it. The next thing I did was look up the book that it was based on. It turns out there are 2 books telling Juanita's story, book one is Dancing On the Edge Of the Roof and book two is On The Right Side Of A Dream, both by Sheila Williams. This explains why Juanita's ending is not very satisfying, it turns out she has more adventures to be told and a return to Paper Moon. Perhaps there will be a second movie to finish the story.

Alfre Woodard is a wonderful actress and an extremely attractive older woman but after reading the notes on the book I realised she is way too old for the part. Juanita is 41 years old, Alfre is 66 years old (even though she does look a lot younger) and she is 20 years older than Adam Beach who plays Jess. I know this wouldn't bother a lot of people but it bothered me.

It made me laugh that she called her fantasy lover by his full name every time she imagined him and I am a big fan of movies that break the fourth wall. I love it when the characters tell us directly what they are feeling or thinking.

She seemed to spend no time at all in Paper Moon, that went over too quickly without being convincing about how she forges close relationships with the residents.

I'm off to see if I can find copies of the books and read more of Juanita's story. I think I will find them more fulfilling than the movie.