Set over one long, sweltering weekend, Labor Day tells the story of an agoraphobic woman named Adele (Kate Winslet) and her caring and protective son, Henry (Gattlin Griffith). Henry has come to care for his mother and be the man of the house since his father (Clark Gregg) left and re-married several years earlier. The effect on Adele was catastrophic, turning her into a shell of the formerly upbeat woman with a penchant for dance that she once was. Instead, Adele spends every day locked in her house, venturing out only – and with much difficulty – for the monthly trip into town for supplies.
On this trip, though, Adele and Henry encounter Frank (Josh Brolin), who has escaped from a prison hospital and needs a place to hide. In the most respectful, but still threatening, manner possible, Frank tells them he’s going to lie low in their house just until he can find a way to get out of town. Far from dangerous, Frank treats Adele and Henry as he would treat his own family. He cooks dinner, fixes things around the house and waits for his moment to escape. Over that time, however, Frank and Adele begin to develop feelings which affect the trajectory of all three lives involved.
There’s no argument that Reitman is a very good director, producing films that touch on universal themes while having a unique bent to them. His last film, Young Adult, was the only bad film he’s made so far, with his others (Thank You For Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air) all being funny and insightful with earnest insights into how people relate to one another.
Labor Day, on the other hand, has as its central conceit the way relationships develop and how they affect our lives, but it is ultimately a disorganized mess with little actual resonance. Based on the novel by Joyce Maynard and adapted for the screen by Reitman himself, Labor Day is just one big lump of generic interactions which strive to be shrewd about the nature of people. The film is overly romantic, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Reitman films the movie with soft, tender camera work that is intended to not intrude into the lives of the characters. Instead, it keeps the audience at arm’s length and never allows us to truly engage with the story. Reitman does deserve credit, though, for challenging himself by taking a Soderbergh-esque approach to Frank’s mysterious past, intercutting his backstory with the present to keep the suspense going. This works and is the film’s only real success.
The acting by the three leads is all very strong, though the characters verge on being hollow outlines of people. Winslet, as always, is quite good, conveying Adele’s frailty as real and tangible. We see the anxiety in her eyes when she steps foot out of her house and the terror she encounters being around large groups of people. Brolin is decent, though is monotone, lockjaw delivery is getting slightly old. Frank speaks almost entirely in metaphorical platitudes, reducing him to an amalgam of little more than homegrown wisdom and advice. The young Griffith manages quite well with his older co-stars, but the character of Henry is underwritten and lackluster for an actor of his talents.
Labor Day is a movie to skip in the theaters and to watch only casually when it makes it to HBO later this year.
Grade: C
