Labor Day
Directed by: Jason Reitman
Written by: Jason Reitman, based on the novel by Joyce Maynard
Starring: Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Gattlin Griffith, Tobey Maguire, Tom Lipinski, Maika Monroe, Clark Gregg, James Van Der Beek, J.K. Simmons, Brooke Smith, Brighid Fleming, Alexie Gilmore, Lucas Hedges, Micah Fowler, Chandra Thomas, Matthew Rauch
Drama - 111 min
Written by: Jason Reitman, based on the novel by Joyce Maynard
Starring: Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Gattlin Griffith, Tobey Maguire, Tom Lipinski, Maika Monroe, Clark Gregg, James Van Der Beek, J.K. Simmons, Brooke Smith, Brighid Fleming, Alexie Gilmore, Lucas Hedges, Micah Fowler, Chandra Thomas, Matthew Rauch
Drama - 111 min
In Labor Day’s rural northeastern town, everybody knows everybody else and their business. All interactions are on a first name basis including grocery shopping and the bank. Neighbors know the area’s routines so if someone starts going out more than usual, staying in for longer periods, or even taking an alternate route for a stroll, folks are going to take notice. Therefore, when escaped prisoner Frank (Josh Brolin) takes Adele (Kate Winslet) and her son Henry (Gattlin Griffith) hostage in their own home, it should not be too hard for such an insular town to ferret out that something is amiss.
On the lam and wounded, Frank stumbles across the most introverted and isolated pair he could have found. Adele’s ex-husband, Gerald (Clark Gregg), took off and left the two of them alone and emotionally scarred. Henry tip-toes around helping out as best he can while Adele does a lot of staring, shaking, and is well on her way toward a downward spiral into deep depression. Frank’s sudden presence in the household coincidentally fills a vacancy.
Not your average roughneck killer on a crime spree, Frank sizes up the situation and decides to fill in some cracks. He performs effective handyman work on the house and car, teaches Henry about baseball, and overall, is nice and considerate to Adele. All of this attention and adept husband/father endeavors perform an unintentional yet not necessarily unwanted form of Stockholm Syndrome. When Frank declares there is more to the story of why he was behind bars, Adele and Henry find it easy to believe him.
Establishing a suspenseful and heart-pounding first encounter with Frank, director Jason Reitman was well on his way to pulling off his first drama. Where Labor Day derails a bit is in the extended middle with young Henry being pushed and pulled in multiple directions. Henry is 13 and going through a very specific coming-of-age episode in his pubescent life. He stares at the bra strap of the girl in front of him in class but does not quite know why he does that. At the store, the women on the fashion magazine covers interest him more than the action heroes on the comic books. Henry’s dad is not much help to him as he has a new family to focus on and these are feelings a boy does not want to work through with his mother.
Frank’s repair skills and general alpha male presence in the house is perhaps why Adele and Henry grow comfortable around him far sooner than they would in real life. The movie is set over the long Labor Day weekend, not enough time one would think for a mother to fall in love with a bleeding felon that the TV is telling her may be armed and dangerous. Reitman is known for creating snarky and witty comedies such as Thank You for Smoking (2005), Juno (2007), and Young Adult (2011). Labor Day is a departure from what we expect from a Reitman film; there are no jokes or winks at all, just pure drama. The film is not a departure for Kate Winslet though. She is as skilled at playing a specific kind of wounded wife and mother as any actress could be recalling her rolls in Little Children (2006) and Revolutionary Road (2008).
Adapted from the 2009 novel of the same name by Joyce Maynard, Labor Day sets us up in the beginning for a tense family situation, thrills us with an exciting broad daylight kidnapping, and then shifts gears into nostalgic romanticism. There is an extended baking scene of a peach pie that stacks up so many double meanings and metaphors it should come cascading down and explode the pie right in the oven. The camera work is slow and methodical reminding you of lazy days and the lighting is soft and filtered producing a haze to bring forth idyllic memories of a simpler time. Not that 1987 was by any means a simpler time, but Labor Day will give you a compact story that is not too challenging and will leave the ladies in the audience with a warm feeling inside; just like that overcooked peach pie.
On the lam and wounded, Frank stumbles across the most introverted and isolated pair he could have found. Adele’s ex-husband, Gerald (Clark Gregg), took off and left the two of them alone and emotionally scarred. Henry tip-toes around helping out as best he can while Adele does a lot of staring, shaking, and is well on her way toward a downward spiral into deep depression. Frank’s sudden presence in the household coincidentally fills a vacancy.
Not your average roughneck killer on a crime spree, Frank sizes up the situation and decides to fill in some cracks. He performs effective handyman work on the house and car, teaches Henry about baseball, and overall, is nice and considerate to Adele. All of this attention and adept husband/father endeavors perform an unintentional yet not necessarily unwanted form of Stockholm Syndrome. When Frank declares there is more to the story of why he was behind bars, Adele and Henry find it easy to believe him.
Establishing a suspenseful and heart-pounding first encounter with Frank, director Jason Reitman was well on his way to pulling off his first drama. Where Labor Day derails a bit is in the extended middle with young Henry being pushed and pulled in multiple directions. Henry is 13 and going through a very specific coming-of-age episode in his pubescent life. He stares at the bra strap of the girl in front of him in class but does not quite know why he does that. At the store, the women on the fashion magazine covers interest him more than the action heroes on the comic books. Henry’s dad is not much help to him as he has a new family to focus on and these are feelings a boy does not want to work through with his mother.
Frank’s repair skills and general alpha male presence in the house is perhaps why Adele and Henry grow comfortable around him far sooner than they would in real life. The movie is set over the long Labor Day weekend, not enough time one would think for a mother to fall in love with a bleeding felon that the TV is telling her may be armed and dangerous. Reitman is known for creating snarky and witty comedies such as Thank You for Smoking (2005), Juno (2007), and Young Adult (2011). Labor Day is a departure from what we expect from a Reitman film; there are no jokes or winks at all, just pure drama. The film is not a departure for Kate Winslet though. She is as skilled at playing a specific kind of wounded wife and mother as any actress could be recalling her rolls in Little Children (2006) and Revolutionary Road (2008).
Adapted from the 2009 novel of the same name by Joyce Maynard, Labor Day sets us up in the beginning for a tense family situation, thrills us with an exciting broad daylight kidnapping, and then shifts gears into nostalgic romanticism. There is an extended baking scene of a peach pie that stacks up so many double meanings and metaphors it should come cascading down and explode the pie right in the oven. The camera work is slow and methodical reminding you of lazy days and the lighting is soft and filtered producing a haze to bring forth idyllic memories of a simpler time. Not that 1987 was by any means a simpler time, but Labor Day will give you a compact story that is not too challenging and will leave the ladies in the audience with a warm feeling inside; just like that overcooked peach pie.
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