Labor Day

You might not want to watch Labor Day on an empty stomach. This is a film ripe with frames of mouth-watering food, with one meticulously shot baking scene even playing an integral part in character development. It’s a hot Labor Day weekend and Frank (Josh Brolin) wants to teach single mum Adele (Kate Winslet) and her son Henry (Gattlin Griffith) how to make a decent crust for a peach pie. As they get to work on mixing the dough with no utensils, Frank and Adele’s hands end up delicately intertwining and an evident connection begins to form between the two. Except Frank is no ordinary man. In fact, he happens to be an escaped convict who is lying low in this small family’s home while the police relentlessly patrol the area.

Based on the novel by Joyce Maynard, Labor Day marks quite a departure from director Jason Reitman’s previous work. In all of his films from Thank You For Smoking to Young Adult, he’s always managed to put a comical spin on controversial characters (whether they are tobacco lobbyists or self-centered home-wreckers) that has always been carefully calibrated, which in turn made his protagonists more human and relatable despite their obvious flaws. In stark contrast, Labor Day is largely a humorless affair, which makes accepting a taciturn one-time murderer as a romantic lead/loving father figure slightly more problematic. It’s an intriguing challenge Reitman has set himself, just arguably one he does not manage to live up to.

Still, you can’t fault him for trying. What we have here is a filmmaker straying out of his comfort zone and eager to venture into new territories – except it seems that Reitman has inadvertently stumbled into Steven Spielberg’s back yard. Labor Day’s warm photography and 80’s rural setting could very easily have been lifted from Amblin Entertainment’s early back catalogue, while the fact that the film is narrated from the perspective of a prepubescent Henry makes this a coming of age tale as much as a suburban thriller. Therefore, while the scenes focusing on young Hank’s emerging infatuation for girls are endearingly portrayed, the ones in which Frank teaches him how to change a car tyre and throw a baseball like a man are probably a tad too syrupy.

If anything, the performances are reliably solid. Kate Winslet proves she is fast becoming the new Meryl Streep and that her Golden Globe nomination earlier this year was fully deserved, thanks to her believable portrayal of a vulnerable mother who’s forgotten what it is like to be loved. As implied earlier, Josh Brolin has to contend with the trickier role and while at times Frank may come off a little too holier-than-thou, Brolin manages to infuse him with enough warmth and charisma to make him a character you want to root for.

In true Spielbergian fashion all loose ends are tied up a little too neatly towards the end, especially after what is admittedly a gut-wrenching climax. It’s a pity, really, as Reitman is not usually one to give into narrative catharsis. After all, George Clooney didn’t get the girl at the end of Up in the Air and Charlize Theron didn’t learn a damn thing by the end of Young Adult. Perhaps for once the director was yearning for a happy ending. Let him have it.

3/5