And as various characters in Juno reveal through the course of Juno’s pregnancy, the value that ends up trumping everything else and turns out to be at the center of Juno’s ability to be who she is and make it through the imperfect and often surprising life that surrounds her is love.

Towards the end of the movie, as Juno finds her best laid plans beginning to fall apart around her, she tells her father, “I need to know that it’s possible for two people to stay happy together forever.”

With tears on her face and a doubt in her eyes that has never been there before, she needs to know that there is love. She needs know it for herself, and she needs to know it for her baby.

His answer: “The best thing you can do is to find someone who loves you for exactly what you are.” In other words, to find someone who loves her as much as he does.

And with that answer, Juno is off and back on course. The perfect plan is no longer there. But as she looks towards both her future and that of her soon-to-be-born baby, she sees that there in fact is a love that wants nothing more than to be there for her and her baby just as they are. And with the knowledge of that love before her, that’s all she needs to confidently say, “I’m still in.”

From beginning to end, Juno is a movie that draws you in and keeps you connected. Instead of relying on this formula for laughs and that formula for awhs, Juno’s story is one built on the realistic responses of unique individuals facing a world not unlike the one we all face every day. And on this foundation, the story and every one of its characters deliver more laughs, smiles, nods, and tugs at the heart than most other movies I’ve seen this year.

In fact, I can’t come up with any part of Juno I don’t like. Diablo Cody’s script and dialogue are spot on. Ellen Page captures Juno’s uniquely confident character brilliantly. Michael Cera makes me fall in love with goofy track boys all over again. Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons bring the perfect mix of in-touch, out-of-touch, surprised, and supportive to their roles as unexpected grandparents. And Jennifer Garner channels her real-life role as a mother perfectly to make you truly believe that loving and being loved is what we were all born to do.

Unlike so many movies that only show us where we don’t want to be and were wish we could be, Juno is a movie that reminds us all to see the blessing of exactly who we are and where we are right now. Because no matter where that is, there will always be love. Wherever there is love, there will be joy. And I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of story that makes me smile.