Review of Labor Day (2013) by Foxgrove — 27 Dec 2013

In essence Labor Day is just a sweet romance. All very tastefully done and starring Kate Winslet in another effortlessly nuanced performance. She plays a single mother who finds love with an escaped convict who holds both her and her teenage son hostage in their own home. Josh Brolin is good as the convict but pitted against Winslet he is some what eclipsed. Flashbacks provide us with the back ground to both these characters and allow us to understand why they are in their current situations, but the movie is best when following the thrust of the main narrative. These flashbacks are, in fact, the least successful aspect of the film being only of sporadic interest. Brolin's past is signposted a mile off and Winslet's isn't particularly revealing.

The film does have a nice gentle tone to it which leads to an expected and inevitable conclusion. However, some satisfactorily added scenes gives us a coda which, if conventional, is still moving.

Gattlin Griffith who plays Winslet's son is very good, his expressive face bringing great maturity to his performance.