Labor Day starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin
Adele’s (Kate Winslet) husband (Clark Gregg) has left her for his secretary, and she lives with her son Henry. Henry is pretty much the only joy in her isolated and depressed existence.
She leaves her house once a month with Henry for groceries, and this is where escaped convict Frank (Josh Brolin) enlists their help. I say “enlist”, because even though he does subtly hint they don’t have a choice, and keeps Henry closeby, you could say this is the nicest hostage-taking situation ever. (Yep, I know how weird it sounds.) Frank asks them to drive to their house.
Once there, he tells them he only needs to hide until trains start, and he doesn’t mean any harm. At first Adele is skeptical and defensive, but Frank proves his kind nature by taking good care of them. After he realizes there might not be a train due to the holiday, he proves to be the best house guest ever by taking the chores upon himself, and being a better housemate/partner/father than Henry’s father ever was in the short span of time. He and Adele share an immense connection –so much so that Adele doesn’t want him to leave.
Of course hiding a convict in a small town full of nosy people isn’t easy. Add to this Henry’s confused adoloscent mindset and his new manipulative friend…and let’s say, the tension picks up…
*
Based on Joyce Maynard’s novel, Labor Day is a modest, slow but sincere film. The acting is really good, and even if you want to dismiss some of the dialogue as sappy, you can’t. Josh Brolin owns his character: a gentle guy who did something horrible without intending to, and Kate Winslet is just lovely. She transforms gracefully from sad and tired to passionate and lively. And given both their pasts with the opposite sex (Frank’s is slowly revealed through flashbacks), and how opposite they are personally to those people (and not to mention, how attractive both Kate and Josh are), the romance, commitment and passion make a lot of sense.
Speaking of flashbacks, the choice for young Brolin (Tom Lipinski) just might be the best younger version casting choice I’ve ever seen. They look so much alike, you could imagine Lipinski as Brolin in the future.
The only thing that bothered me as how Henry – the kid- starts as a lovely, thoughtful and insightful kid but then makes such naive, silly choices that makes you wonder if it’s the same kid. That said, this is not a complaint about the story. Yes, he is an adolescent. And he is somewhat isolated. Combine hormones and the complexity/novelty of the situation, it makes sense. I was just really disappointed because I expected more from him.
The movie also features two fun cameos from James Van Der Beek and J.K. Simmons. The movie was adapted and directed by Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air, Thank You For Smoking).
I recommed Labor Day to all romantics. Is the ending sad? Yes and no. It’d frankly be my third preffered ending. If you see the movie, we can discuss those in the comments. Would hate to spoil things for you.
After all, this is not a romantic comedy. The ending isn’t that clear, though of course you can feel it coming at some point.
But I absolutely loved Brolin’s character.
Let me know what you think.:)
P S I decided to read the book to see how they compare.
