Labor Day Review

Having been nominated for four Oscars in his career, for the likes of Junoand Up in the Air, director Jason Reitman is bound to be disappointed that his latest picture, Labor Day, was shunned at the recent Academy Awards. However it’s easy to see why, as this production fails to hit the highs of his previous endeavours, as an all too cliched and mawkish romantic tale.

Our entry point into this tale is Henry Wheeler (Gattlin Griffith), an introverted teenager who lives at home with his single mother Adele (Kate Winslet), who is battling with depression. One morning as the pair head to the supermarket, they are approached by rogue fugitive Frank (Josh Brolin) who has recently escaped from prison, and demands they take him back to their abode. Though naturally an intimidating figure – and one who is holding these two people hostage – he turns out to be something of a revelation, as the father figure Henry needed and the companion that Adele was searching for. Soon his compassionate nature is shown, and rather than wish to be freed, they become desperate for Frank to stay.

Given the police search that ensues, this romantic tale has a foreboding tone that remains prevalent throughout and an intensity that corresponds well with the more intimate, tender moments. It helps proceedings that we see events unravel through the naïve, unpredictable eyes of a teenager. Frank’s whereabouts has to remain hidden, but with somebody to volatile as our lead, you always remain on edge that the secret could be revealed to another person at any given moment. Seeing the world through Henry’s eyes is intriguing also, as we have the opportunity to see Frank from a more pure perspective – similar to last year’s Mud starring Matthew McConaughey. We don’t see the danger in the man, we see the father figure, and the friend. Frank, like Mud, remains an elusive presence too, and given we don’t find out what his initial crime was, he becomes something of an enigma.

Yet in spite of the positives, ultimately Labor Day is too forgettable a feature film, and abides frustratingly by convention, particularly a shame given the ingenuity of the man in the director’s chair. However, if there is one real positive to be taken from this, it’s that we learn how to make one mean peach tart courtesy of our fugitive, in a rather elongated cooking sequence. So it’s not all doom and gloom.