Labor Day (2014)

Running Time: 1 Hour 45 mins
Genre: Drama
Estimated Budget: $18, 000,000
Estimated Gross (USA 16th March): $13, 362,308

Director: Jason Reitman
Writer: Joyce Maynard (novel) Jason Reitman (screenplay)
Stars: Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Gattlin Griffith

My Rating: 7/10

Labor Day was supposed to be released in February, it got held back over a month and a half. After seeing the trailer around christmas time and Kate Winslet being one of my favourite actresses I was desperately awaiting its release.

Labor Day is exactly what you see in the trailer, a story of two people who for different circumstances are struggling through life. When they meet an understanding and love forms in a matter of hours, with the constant threat of it being taken away, they cling tightly to each other for support.

The story of an eventful Labor Day in the mid eighties is told in retrospect by an adult Henry through the narration of Tobey Maguire. He relates how he and his single mother Adele (Winslet) who lives a secluded and lonely life since her husband left her, go on their monthly visit to the supermarket for supplies over Labor Day weekend. In the store Henry (Griffith) is approached by a man who asks for his help. He is bleeding and looks suspicious but is tall muscular and not someone you would say no to in a hurry. Under pressure for the safety of her son, Adele agrees to take this stranger; Frank to their home and he hides out there. It is revealed that he is an escaped convict who is serving life in prison for murder. When neighbours call, Frank realises that to save this small family he must tie Adele up so it does not look like she is willingly housing a fugitive. Both Adele and Henry pick up that their is something rather strange about Frank. He has a quiet, calm and soothing nature, nothing like what a criminal is imagined to be like. There is an instant connection between Frank and Adele, both are craving human touch and understanding, something that the teenage Henry is just on the cusp of finding out for himself being too young to understand the need as yet.

Things get complicated when Frank is persuaded to stay, even in Adele and Henry's uneventful and lonely existence their is still the outside world which breaks into their little bubble every now and then. For this reason living with a convict is living on a knifes edge. Through Frank they learn to enjoy the little things, freedom and appreciation being the most important. But they are snapped back into their tense reality by patrolling police cars, news reports and invading neighbours. It can only be a matter of time before the inevitable happens, it is just a case of when and how they will be discovered.

Labor Day is not the usual Jason Reitman film, known for the likes of Juno (2007), Up in the Air (2009) and Young Adult (2011) which are all incredibly well written scripts focusing very much on dialogue. Labor Day breaks the mould as a lot of the drama takes place through quiet almost still action and glances. With a narration that runs through the entire film at regular intervals there is little need for much dialogue as all the explanations are told to you through Maguire's calming tones.

Frank is an interesting character, well developed to a point; he is a criminal and we see his background in flashbacks, mostly silent montages. However towards the climax of these we are given less and less information and left to piece together the events. What invests us in his character is that despite his conviction we like him, we support him and we desperately want him to get away with Adele and Henry and start afresh.

Gattlin Griffith was a great find, he is very expressive, this is a brilliant first film for him. The film says so much through glances and suggestion, Griffith is able to keep us informed of every feeling and thought without uttering a word; a trait that his co-stars have said to have admired in him. Kate Winslet gives a subdued and reserved performance, contrasting her usual strong vocal characters. But this silence was required for the fragile Adele. Brolin is another vocal actor that has his volume and strength taken away from him to create a slow emotion filled performance, he put a lot of feeling into a character that needed to show years of suffering and grief. Director Reitman told him and Winslet to really hold back, it was something they had to think about as their natural reactions had to be overridden to create an almost still pace.

The peach scene is one that has and will be talked about, like the famous pottery scene from Ghost (1990) except with peaches and dough and an awkward teenager third wheeling. Will it be a classic moment in film, time will tell. Brolin baked endless pies during the making of the film to deliver an effortless performance as if he'd being doing it for years.

If I had to use one word to describe this film I would use simmering; that describes the unlikely romance that gently and slowly builds, the tension which is felt by this small manufactured family and the heat which is very evident at times, recalling Body Heat (1981) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) where the heat is like a character.

This was a well written and well thought out script with a great cast with solid performances. This is a great one for a friday evening with a chilled glass of wine and a box of After Eights. Hope you enjoy.