Labor Day (2014) Directed by Jason Reitman. Starring: Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, & Gattlin Griffith. IMDB says: “Depressed single mom Adele and her son Henry offer a wounded, fearsome man a ride. As police search town for the escaped convict, the mother and son gradually learn his true story as their options become increasingly limited. ”
Labor Day tells the story of 13-year-old Henry Wheeler (Gattlin Griffith) and the last weekend before he’s about to start school again. He’s spent the summer much like he spends most of his time– taking care of his single mother Adele (Kate Winslet), who’s agoraphobia and depression is crippling. On their once a month trip to get groceries, a random encounter with an escaped convict ends up completely changing their world. Frank Chambers (Josh Brolin) forces them to take him into his home to hide until he can make an escape.
At first Adele is frightened out of her mind and doing anything possible to protect her son. However, it soon becomes clear that Frank is a lot less dangerous than you’d expect from someone doing time for murder. He’s actually kind of sensitive and realizing that this home is a complete disaster and the people in it are damaged, he fixes up the house and shows a bit of genuine kindness. Henry and Adele slowly open up to Frank and start to enjoy his company.
The idea of the film is fairly far-fetched. A woman wanting a man who essentially abducted her son to stick around and form a relationship? That’s some movie fluff that would never actually happen. It’s only because Adele and Henry are so vulnerable that you can understand how they would latch onto a caretaker. Henry has been too responsible for a kid his age and Adele is incredibly lonely. Frank is a little too perfect (he can bake a mean pie) and of course his back story is a lot less vicious as you learn over the movie. It makes the story a lot less complicated which while making the story less interesting, at least helps you buy it.
What ultimately raises this movie from the corniness that the trailer depicts is that it’s not a romance. It’s a coming of age film told firmly from Henry’s perspective. There’s not sweeping romantic moments – not even a sex scene or passionate first kiss. You see the relationship between Frank and Adele develop through Henry’s glimpses of a caressed shoulder or overheard whispered conversation.
It helped that I could focus more on Henry’s point of view because the relationship between Adele and Frank was so unrelatable to me. I couldn’t really get emotionally invested as the events played out. On paper it seems like pretty corny father figure stuff (there’s even a baseball tossing scene), but it didn’t feel quite like that. Henry more so appreciated what Frank was doing for his mother’s state of mind than worried about having a new dad. It grounds the movie a little more than I expected right up through an understated ending that ditches any grand flourishes for quiet moments.
Ultimately though, this isn’t much better than you’d predict. Low expectations certainly helped. I was expecting a movie that was embarrassingly bad, but what I got was just slightly better than mediocre. Jason Reitman’s beautiful direction and the talented cast had me leaving the theater liking it enough to be glad I gave it a chance. It’s still hard to not leave a sour taste in my mouth when I know all involved are capable of a much better movie.
