Turn the Page!

Uh-oh! I’m already getting a bad feeling about actress Ellen Page.

Already a movie veteran at age 21, Page impressed in the independent 2005 thriller “Hard Candy” and a supporting role in “X-Men: The Last Stand.”

But she really catapulted to stardom as a result of her performance as the sharp-tongued pregnant main character in the Oscar-winning “Juno.”

Her follow-up to that is the less-than-enthralling comedy-drama “Smart People,” which opened this weekend. The film could be more accurately titled “Smug People,” and finds Page repeating her “Juno” performance, but with considerably less success.
Her snarky high school character is only a slight variation on Juno MacGuff at best. And she’s pretty unlikable, to be honest.

It’s a little premature to say that the talented Page will be stuck in “repeat mode” for the rest of her career, but here’s hoping Page won’t follow in the footsteps of the initially promising Jon Heder.

The BYU product had his own star-making role — that of the dorky, socially awkward title character in the 2004 hit “Napoleon Dynamite.”

However, Heder has played mostly similar, doofus characters ever since. A couple of attempts to change gears, such as a straight romantic role in “School for Scoundrels,” haven’t gone over well. So now he’s in serious danger of being typecast and having a very brief film career as a result.

Do you think Heder and Page can avoid typecasting in the future?