LABOR DAY
Starring Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin
Directed by Jason Reitman
With 2009's Up in the Air, Jason Reitman demonstrated that, only three films into his career, he'd already mastered the art of polishing Oscar bait to a fine shine. However, when the Academy failed to bite, the Canadian-born director changed tack and unleashed Young Adult, a spectacularly bold and brash comedy that went criminally ignored. In the wake of that disappointment, Reitman's commercial instincts return with a vengeance, amplified to the point where Labor Day often feels like a parody of the earnest three-hanky weeper it clearly aspires to be.
In 1987 New England, Adele (Kate Winslet) is a depressive divorcée who only leaves the house to restock her canned goods and outfit her adolescent, Oedipal son Henry (Gattlin Griffith) with a new wardrobe for the impending school year. While out on just such a supply run, mother and son are confronted by Frank (Josh Brolin), an escaped felon who coerces them into letting him hide out in their secluded home.
Frank's habit of draping his arm around Adele's neck rather than taking her in a stranglehold speaks to the film's unwillingness to have the convicted murderer's presence pose any real threat or generate any psychosexual intrigue. With a Tobey Maguire voiceover (as the adult Henry) ensuring optimal wistfulness, the melodramatic film instead cedes into full-blown, soft-lit homemaker fantasy, with the taciturn gentleman convict eager to lend a hand to the smitten Adele.
However, there's no passion here, only abject ridiculousness. Forget Juno's cringeworthy home skillet exchange, Reitman's nadir is Labor Day's absurdly protracted, supposedly erotically charged pie-making sequence. Here's hoping he's tossed this cheeseball recipe and starts over from scratch the next time out.
