Labor Day (2013)

OK, Josh Brolin has redeemed himself after the disaster of "Old Boy", phew...i was getting worried there as he is one of my favorite actors. this movie is totally different then what i had thought of it in my head. i thought it was gonna be a little bit like the movie " a perfect world " but it was nothing like that.

i was surprised this movie came and went without any fanfare as it really is a good movie and one of my favorites of the year. the 2 adult leads were great and the kid was also very good.

the story is about an escaped convict who gets holed up in a mentally fragile divorcée and her sons home over Labor Day and then what happens the next few days and the consequences of peoples actions even if they didn't mean anything bad by doing such acts.

loved the setting in a slow moving beautiful town atmosphere where it seems like everything moves like molasses, there seem to be a calmness to the picture but right underneath that you could feel the uneasiness and hidden angst of each of the characters in this movie.

also this is a movie about the coming of age of the boy and some of the logical and illogical choices he makes, including one biggg one that has direct consequences for Josh Brolins character.

very very solid movie, bittersweet and moving, almost, but not made me cried. Josh Brolin is back on track again, very good performance from him and everybody involved. one of the must see movies of the year.

Fmovies: I loved the Labor Day script. I read it a few months ago and while I had doubts about the concept and Jason Reitman at first, it ended up winning me over within pages. Maybe it's because it was written with such wit and tenderness, but it's a human story that truly flows with the emotion delivering the images and intimacy required to express its ideas, dancing just above sentimentality. Although its story is slight, it was satisfying and very rich, taking a situation I'm surprised it hasn't been explored in a more popular film and hitting major themes of family structures and cycles of life. It truly disappoints me to hear that people are not only disliking it, but hating it. It feels like it's being approached from the worst perspective, bracing themselves to cringe. I'm not exactly a Reitman fan either. I think Juno is terrible and it took a rewatch to fall in love with Up In The Air after thinking it was mediocre the first time.

While Labor Day may be far from Reitman's regular tone, in execution it instead highlights his style of energetic and creative cinematography and editing. Like the effect of the script, you can feel the heat and taste the food. Surprisingly, as it's a particularly challenging role given that these types of performances usually struggle, our kid protagonist Gattlin Griffith holds his own among the cast. Kate Winslet is reliably great. These characters seem to be her comfort zone and she's certainly perfected her craft, but we don't often enter her headspace. However, the real standout is Josh Brolin. His performance is the epitome of less-is-more and sells his complex character perfectly. Sinister and cold, yet deep and sensual. The idea that he's doing all the mundane things he hasn't been able to do in decades brings simple delights. It's the measured moments where he cracks that show the breadth of his performance as he breaks down the stereotype of a convict.

Unfortunately, some characters don't work very well, such as kid actors Barry and Eleanor who don't have the conviction to make their scenes work. The flashbacks to Frank's past don't have the same effect as the script despite the eerily similar looking young actor, as they're more confusing than clarifying. Contrary to common complaint, this is not like a lifetime movie. I happened to have watched some recently and they're more concerned with twists and insanity, instead Labor Day is closer to a 1950s domestic melodrama. Think more Far From Heaven than anything. I have a little bias as to how much I like this film, but I walked into the script blind too. Though it need not have had the orchestra swell during the on-the-nose summary lines about what the film's events mean to the characters, Labor Day's emotional punch of two souls bonded by tragic pasts still breaks my heart. I'm just glad Tobey Maguire helped rather than hurt.

8/10

For a relatively young filmmaker, Jason Reitman is a keen observer and a skilled storyteller. In "Thank You for Smoking" and "Up in the Air" he has offered unique and insightful views into the business world, and in his latest "Labor Day" he continues to intrigue us with a different subject, a fragmented family that yearns to become full again.

Kate Winslet, Gattlin Griffith, and Josh Brolin bring palpable chemistry as a tired single mother, her whole-world adolescent son, and a ragged man who walks into their life by chance. The somewhat contrived setup is compensated with an intimate observation of these very different characters, as they learn to appreciate and show us precisely what they can do to complement each other. Like other Reitman films, this one has signs of wisdom embedded here and there. There may be a simple quote that comes to greater significance in a later scene, or a plot device that may start making sense when the film is about to finish.

The ending is rather rushed and roughly executed with the older version of Winslet looking eerily lively and the brief appearance of Tobey Maguire that feels superfluous. Still, the meticulous and sensual narrative of the film is so inspirational that, when the film is over, you will find your senses heightened in more ways than one.

Labor Day fmovies. Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin star in "Labor Day," a 2013 film directed by Jason Reitman and also starring Gattlin Griffith and Toby McGuire.

Winslet plays Adele, a divorced woman who has never really recovered from being alone; her husband has remarried, and she lives in a ramshackle house whose interior speaks of her depression. It's a mess, with stuff all over the place. She lives there were her little boy Henry (Griffith). One day, while they're out shopping, Henry meets Frank (Josh Brolin) who asks for a ride. When Henry tells his mother they're giving him a ride, she politely refuses. Frank insists, and sits in the back with Henry. When Adele asks him where he wants to go, he says, "your house." Frank is an escaped convict, and everyone is looking for him. So it doesn't look like they abetted him, he ties Adele and Henry up, planning to leave that evening.

This movie is a great example of how a totally predictable story where not much happens can still be a wonderful film and a work of art - in fact, more of a work of art because it is so predictable and yet manages to hold interest. It's the story of family, of hope, and of love. Both Winslet and Brolin act with incredible sensitivity, and Griffith is adorable as Henry, a good kid who sees his mother's unhappiness and doesn't know how to help her.

It's a sentimental film, but I didn't mind (well, I wouldn't anyway, but I think even people who don't like sentimentalism won't mind it). I found it totally satisfying and romantic, and wasn't at all surprised to hear it's opening on Christmas Day. There is room for all types of films - this is not a huge blockbuster, just a sweet story that fits in well with the spirit of the holidays.

"I'm a lot stronger than you think." "I don't doubt that." Adele and Frank.

Director Jason Reitman is no stranger to unusual family stories (Juno) or character drama (Up in the Air), so his enjoyable Labor Day is a bit of both without the humor. Because this is January, a dead-zone time for releases, it's even more impressive as an audience-pleasing drama about an escaped convict Frank (Josh Brolin) and a mother he kidnaps, Adele (Kate Winslet), along with her 7th grade son, Henry (Gattlin Griffith).

Let's get the formula out now: she falls in love with her captor and the son willingly learns about life and baseball. The real life, however, is hounding them as the law closes in on their 5 days of "family" bliss. However, the authorities are too slow to stop the best family pie making scene ever, domestic stuff just one of charming murderer Frank's gifts and a Reitman specialty.

Recently Mud is similarly about the coming of age and criminal motif and Revolutionary Road with Winslet about a disintegrating family. Yet Reitman and novelist Joyce Maynard have crafted a story that slowly makes believable the growing love between captive and captor, a relationship helped by the classy acting chops of Winslet and Brolin. Although everyone knows helping an escaped criminal leads to serious jail time, this case actually cuts Adele a great deal of slack in the guilty category. As Reitman slowly reveals their mutually grim backgrounds, we are aware that her needs for the touch of a lover are so acute that even this gamble could be worth the risk.

Although Labor Day comes close to Nicholas Sparks' sentimental claptrap, Reitman preserves everyone's dignity, lets love grow, and ushers a kid into a complicated world of love and danger—a labor of love, so to speak, on the film's titular weekend, typically American and hard work: "I sensed my inadequacy," says the adult Henry in voice over. In matters of the heart, we're all inadequate and need films like Labor Day to help us move on.

"Labor Day" is a deeply touching testament to true love and the unexpected ways we can find it. Adele, played by Kate Winslet, is a single mom struggling with severe depression and her son Henry has to take care of himself and his mother since she has difficulties leaving the house. One day, on a trip to the supermarket, Henry and Adele's lives change forever when they meet a man named Frank who is on the run from the law. Intimidated by the stranger, Adele agrees to help the man despite the fact that he is a wanted fugitive. Over the course of the next four days, Adele and Frank fall deeply in love, something that the two of them never thought they would experience again. However, things get complicated as the man-hunt continues and they realize that they don't have many options left.

I am absolutely in love with this film. It is so powerful and takes a new look at love and the second chances people can have. "Labor Day" is so incredible - every aspect of the movie mixes together perfectly to create a work of art. The visuals are incredible because the scenes are all relatively simple, but each shot is so sensory oriented that it allows the audience to experience what it was like for the character. The locations, costumes and set design are so authentic, and the soundtrack is very fitting for the film and it all comes together to create the perfect the perfect experience.

The acting in this film is phenomenal. There are very few characters and minimal dialogue, so everything is conveyed primarily through simple facial expression and the amazing film work. Kate Winslet does a superb job in this role and is able to communicate more emotions with her technique of subtle expressions than words ever could. Josh Brolin portrayal of Frank is absolutely perfect. He's able to break down the stereotypes placed on his character in the beginning of the film and shows that there is always more to the story than what is on the surface. I also think Gattlin Griffith, who plays Adele's son Henry, shows his characters struggle of having to be the "man" of the house in a very powerful way. You get the sense that he is terrified about what could happen to his family - his mother and himself - once Frank enters the picture, but he still tries to be strong. I love watching his character develop as Henry realizes that Frank might just be the best thing to ever happen to him and his mother. There are so many moments in the film where it seems as if something is going to go terribly wrong for the couple and the suspense of waiting to see what will play out adds an unexpected element of fear to the film. Kate, Josh and Gattlin are fantastic at giving the sense of not knowing what will happen to them in the near future and it really raises the stakes for the family.

Something else that I love about this film is how throughout the movie there are short flashbacks of the past and it is done in such a way that it is hard to tell whose past it is. I think this is neat because it shows that Adele and Frank are more alike than it seems and it is a miracle that they found each other. "Labor Day" is so touching that by the end of the film I was crying harder than I have at a movie in a really long time. It was so incredibly beautiful to see how love can endure no matter what trials surface and no matter how long people are apart. I'd like to believe that everyone can find a love like that and this movie shows that no matter how hurt you have been, there is always another chance for