Who knew if you wanted someone to mop your floors and fix your roof all you had to do was harbor a known fugitive.
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“Labor Day” is the latest film from director Jason Reitman, and follows a mother and her son as they encounter a fugitive on the run, and how his presence impacts their lives. Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin take the lead roles in a movie that seems to be as much about coming to grips with adolescence as it is about coming to grips with our own stories. Now if you’ve seen Reitman’s other movies you may think you know what you are getting yourself into, but you would be wrong. In Labor Day, Reitman appears to have traded quips and quirk for brooding tension and tragedy, but does it work for him?
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Well, some of it does. For instance, I love the way he reveals the back stories of our two leads, allowing Winslet to hint at her’s through action and response with one big reveal late in the film, while Brolin’s is told in poignant flashes that strategically cut through the conversations of the present. Neither is necessarily a new idea, but using them together is a beautiful way to counterpoint their stories, and it’s done with precision and skill. Winslet and Brolin’s performances are great as well with Kate especially pulling incredible emotion from this woman’s life and needs. I also enjoyed the way Reitman used the music and pacing to not only set a sense of foreboding and tension to the movie but also a sense of confusion. The chords change in ways that embody what this young man trying to differentiate father figure from criminal must be going through. It’s subtle but I think beautiful though it may catch many off guard.
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In fact much of this movie will catch people off guard. Why? Well, Reitman doesn’t usually do slow paced, and to anyone who comes expecting Juno or Up In the Air this movie will feel like a slow row to hoe. And I guess its a valid complaint, though I get the intent of the pacing, it does weigh the movie down with little humor at all to give us relief along the way. I also found some of the plot line to be a little much to accept. I mean, not that an escaped convict couldn’t be a handyman, and a maid, and a cook, and a supportive father, but by the end of the movie I was feeling like maybe I should go do some time so I could be a better husband and help around the house. It’s kind of like the male version of the “hooker with a heart of gold” trope that Julia Roberts embodied in Pretty Woman. Let’s just call it Convict with Convictions. Not to mention that it all happens over the course of 4 days which seems a bit quick in my book for some of the decisions that were being made. But the heart wants what the heart wants I suppose. I also found it strange that actors like JK Simmons and James Vanderbeek were basically cast in roles with nothing to do which seems a shame.
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Overall, “Labor Day” is a daring departure for Jason Reitman. Great performances, and some haunting stories are mostly enough to offset a movie that at times felt too slow and hard to swallow. It escapes with a B-
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