Labor Day ** (2013, Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Gattlin Griffith, James Van Der Beek) – Movie Review

Directed by Jason Reitman, maker of Juno, Labor Day is a novelettish romantic drama that tries to turns itself into an art movie. The film means well, is powerfully acted and looks amazing but unfortunately its story is pretty dodgy.

Kate Winslet stars as a doomy and depressed single mom called Adele with a well-behaved but lonely little son called Henry (Gattlin Griffith), living and just getting by in idyllic-looking small-town America. They go shopping. The boy is accosted by a wounded, gruff and tough hunk of all-American man (Josh Brolin), who forces them into giving him a ride and hiding him out in their home till he can make his getaway. It soon turns out he’s an escaped convict, convicted of murder. Adele hardly even considers dialling 911.

As the police search town for the killer, Frank starts ingratiating himself with the mother and son, first by doing little jobs round the home, then by cooking for them, then showing them how to do stuff, practical things, and sweet things like how to dance. He gradually learn his true story. There are extenuating circumstances, but he’s still a killer. Henry soon embraces Frank as a surrogate father and not long after Adele finds herself falling in love with him.

It’s only a movie, of course, but it’s hard to believe this story and it’s wrong of the writers to persuade us about this weird love story. The film’s nadir comes when Frank teaches Henry how to make American peach pie and all three characters have their fingers in the thing, like it’s the erotic pot-making scene in Ghost. And it’s even more embarrassing.

[Brolin learned to bake for the movie! ‘I had an abject fear that I was going to look like an idiot filming that scene,’ he says. ‘I was practising making pies at my house. I cooked a pie a day for two and a half months.’]

Winslet and Brolin give impeccable performances, especially Brolin who’s turned into such a brilliant actor as well as star in middle age. The kid’s good too. He’s totally wasted, but Tobey Maguire’s familiar tones narrate as the adult Henry. Tom Lipinski plays the young Frank, looking so like a young Brolin that it’s uncanny. He looks like his son.

Looking good and very smart, James Van Der Beek puts in a very effective appearance as Officer Treadwell, who turns up at the home snooping around. J K Simmons (from Juno) has a cameo as Mr Jervis. Dylan Minnette plays High School Henry. This film sure isn’t an acting problem.

There’s nothing at all wrong with Reitman’s direction which is tense, bristling and swift-moving, or his screenplay either, as such. The dialogue is fine, the scenes are well crafted. The problem lies in the central idea of Joyce Maynard’s source novel and the weird thing is that nobody seems to have noticed that while they were making it.

The mother is apparently incapable on her own. She can’t even oil the door’s hinges. So she needs a man to rescue her. A convicted murderer forces his way into her house and life, but he’s handy with an oil can and the pie making. The nearest man turns out to be perfect in every way, apart from being a killer that is. Small flaw! Feminists will be enraged.

On the plus side, this is one heck of a beautifully crafted movie. Eric Steelberg’s cinematography is ravishing and Mark Robert Taylor’s period art direction is impeccable.

Jason is the son of director Ivan Reitman, director of Ghostbusters, Twins and Dave.

Brolin adds: ‘Kate and I were like two truck drivers having a great time.’

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© Derek Winnert 2014 derekwinnert.com

Dylan Minnette plays High School Henry.