Review of Labor Day (2013) by Panta O — 19 Jun 2014

This surprisingly good drama is based on the novel of the same name by Joyce Maynard. It was announced in 2009 that the film would be directed by Jason Reitman, and two years later it was announced that Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin committed to star as the film's leads Adele and Frank, respectively. I am grateful for those choices, because this was one of the most complex roles I've seen Kate Winslet performing the best possible way!

Do not get fooled by the 33% from the RT critics, because the story of Adele Wheeler (Kate Winslet) who is a depressed single mom living in a rural home with her 13-year-old son, Henry (Gattlin Griffith) was an interesting and moving one. By chance they meet Frank Chambers (Josh Brolin), a convict who is wanted by the local police after breaking out of jail hospital. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Frank is a Vietnam veteran who returned home and married his pregnant girlfriend, Mandy (Maika Monroe), who soon gave birth, but wasn't really a marriage material. A year after the baby's birth, Frank and Mandy had a fight, where she unintentionally revealed that he isn't the baby's father. During the fight, he accidentally pushed her against a radiator, resulting in her death. Simultaneously, the baby drowned and Frank was sent to jail for Mandy's murder...

The film is full with emotion and episodes where you could be overwhelmed with sadness or joy, and too many critics took that for melodramatic clichés, which they could be if we didn't have the excellent directing and outstanding acting of a couple which was perfectly casted! With them, everything seemed natural and logical, from hidden sexual charge to initially innocent events which will cost Frank his freedom!

Lovely piece of work!