REVIEW: Labor Day

7/10 - I want to live with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin forever. 

I read the Labor Day script some time last year, as a fan of Jason Reitman. I'm always impressed by the real sense of humanity he injects into his films.

Labor Day is a drama about a young boy with his agoraphobic mom who become entangled with an escaped prisoner over labor day weekend. It's one part coming of age story, one part suspense, and one part romance.

This is one of those movies that I really like, even though I'm aware it's not great. I really love the dimensional characters. Rarely do I enjoy child actors, but Gattlin Griffith is great at carrying this film. His character reflects the dimensions of a young boy who struggles with family, his need to care for his mentally unwell mother, his own growing feelings for his classmates.

This film presents a complicated scenario in simple ways. Scenes are in themselves quite boring but the slow development creates a wonderful bond with those characters. Labor Day is crafted in a way that the actions tell the story and the narrative enhances it, a rarity in films with prominent narration. The illustrations of pain and hope are really beautiful, and even though it sides on trite and predictable, For me it's saved by the sincerity of those characters who in-themselves might be contrived, but together are music.

To be perfectly honest, I probably would have rated this film higher if it wasn't for the constant up and downs between heart-jumping tension, and the mundane. The scenes intended to evoke powerful emotions were terrific but if left me wanting more from the scenes that were not. Labor Day feels like reading a novel (perhaps the one it's based on) as you delve entirely into the life of another, capturing so many details and small interactions. A wonderful idea but not necessarily great for impatient audiences.

If you're looking for a drama with a lot of big dramatic moments, look elsewhere. Moreso, if you are the least bit cynical this will be the best movie to watch and complain about for the next 3 months. The romantic adventure, healing past wounds side of this film borders on sugar-mountain cliche. I'm sure there are many who viewed it as being sickly sweet. I'm only cynical when it comes to the big action flicks, for this I was a hopeless romantic and totally bought in.

IMDb - Labor Day (6.9)
Wikipedia - Labor Day
Rotten Tomatoes - Labor Day (34%)
Amazon.ca - Labor Day