Labor Day - Movie Review
Rating: 3 out of 5
With one of Kate Winslet's most layered, resonant performances, this film is definitely worth a look, even though the indulgent filmmaking style pushes it perilously close to Nicholas Sparks-style sappiness. Clearly, writer-director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) is shifting gears as a filmmaker, but the movie is in dire need of just a hint of his usual jagged wit.
It's set in 1980s New Hampshire, as the agoraphobic Adele (Kate Winslet) is struggling to raise her sensitive teen son Henry (Gattlin Griffith) on her own after her husband (Clark Gregg) left. Then one night escaped convict Frank (Josh Brolin) arrives at their house in need of a place to hide. The next day, Frank offers to help with some repairs on the house. He also notices that Henry needs to learn how to throw a baseball. And that Adele needs some affection. So over the long Labor Day Weekend, he becomes the badly needed man of the house. Then when a neighbour (J.K. Simmons) and a cop (James Van Der Beek) start snooping, they make a plan to run for the Canadian border.
Instead of a dark, menacing edge, Reitman washes the film in sun-dappled earnestness, ramping up the soapy emotions rather than the grittier issues these people so badly need to deal with. This reaches a low point when Frank teaches Adele how to bake a peach pie in a scene reminiscent of the lusty pot-spinning sequence in Ghost: laughably ridiculous. Fortunately, Winslet and Brolin generate some uneasy chemistry, and Griffith is a fine young actor in a very difficult role. Together, they pull the film back from the sudsy brink just in time for a genuinely tense final sequence.
But it's not easy, as Reitman throws every schmaltzy trick at them, from Rolfe Kent's mood-signposting score to Eric Steelberg's sunshiny cinematography to Tobey Maguire's crinkly voiceover narration as the adult Henry. All of these things continually remove us from the essentially riveting story of three loners who find an awkward solace together, threatened by the big bad world around them. That story is here, but you have to work to stay in it.
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Facts and Figures
Year: 2013
Genre: Dramas
Run time: 111 mins
In Theaters: Friday 31st January 2014
Box Office USA: $13.4M
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Production compaines: Right of Way Films, Mr. Mudd Production, Indian Paintbrush
Reviews
Contactmusic.com: 3 / 5
Rotten Tomatoes: 34%
Fresh: 61 Rotten: 120
IMDB: 6.9 / 10
Cast & Crew
Director: Jason Reitman
Producer: Jason Reitman, Helen Estabrook, Lianne Halfon, Russell Smith
Screenwriter: Jason Reitman
Starring: Josh Brolin as Frank, Kate Winslet as Adele, Clark Gregg as Gerald, James Van Der Beek as Officer Treadwell, Tobey Maguire as Older Henry Wheeler, Maika Monroe as Mandy, Brooke Smith as Evelyn, Dylan Minnette as Henry at 16, Gattlin Griffith as Henry Wheeler, Greg Nutcher as Officer Benson, Tom Lipinski as Young Frank, Alexie Gilmore as Marjorie, Alexandra East as Bank Manager
Also starring: J.K Simmons, Lucas Hedges, Elena Kampouris, Jason Reitman, Lianne Halfon, Russell Smith