LABOR DAY

US, 2013, 111 minutes, Colour.
Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Gatling Griffith, Toby Maguire, Clark Gregg, Maike Munro, James van den Beek, J.K.Simmons, Brooke Smith, Brighid Fleming.
Directed by Jason Reitman.

Labor Day is a quietly moving drama. Some audiences may find it very slow moving, but the film is finely detailed, giving the audience time to appreciate, be moved, contemplate what is happening and to contemplate the characters and their feelings and interactions.

In a sense, the plot is fairly familiar and, perhaps, predictable. It has been seen in dramas like The Desperate Hours when a family is held hostage in the home by escaped criminals. But, Labor Day is not like this. There is little or no overt violence in the film, except, most unexpectedly, when the mother of a boy with muscular dystrophy is annoyed at the end of a busy day caring for her father and slaps him across the face – more unexpected because of the lack of violence throughout the film.

We are introduced to Adele, a middle-aged woman suffering from depression and a general fear of going out of the house or making contact outside. The introduction is made in the voice-over by her son Henry, at the time of the film’s action he is 12 or 13, but the voice-over voice is that of his adult self, played by Toby Maguire. He explains that he has to look after his mother, care for her, take responsibility for her, which he does willingly. On a rare visit to a supermarket with his mother, Henry is accosted by a man who is bleeding and asks to be taken to his house. Adele is afraid, especially when it emerges that the stranger is a prison escapee, who had been serving a sentence for murder.

After the initial alarm, the film settles down in a way that we had not anticipated. We begin to wonder whether the escapee, Frank (Josh Brolin in a most sympathetic role), is guilty of the charge. During the film there are quite a number flashbacks to his previous life, his marriage, the birth of his child, the death of his wife. While tying up Adele for appearance’s sake, and intending to leave the next morning, he decides to stay for the Labour Day weekend. And he proves himself an extraordinary father-figure, mending things in the house, coaching Henry at baseball, a kindly and wise man. He is practically a saint-figure, a practical one at that.

This is all reassuring for Adele, who is played excellently by Kate Winslet, an intelligent actress in all her performances. Henry is played by Gatling Griffith, a talented young man who is able to keep his own on screen with both Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. The weekend is not what they all we were anticipating and it leads to plans for the future. In the meantime, Henry has a Sunday visit with his father, who confesses that had he been a stronger man, he would have been able to stay with Adele in her depression.

Significantly, Adele’s depression has been caused by trauma in giving birth to Henry, several miscarriages, and a very difficult birth experience which will move all audiences, eliciting compassion for women who experience such circumstances.

The screenplay is not as predictable as some audiences might have it, more of reality than we might have expected. Some reviewers have remarked on sentiment and sentimentality – but it always depends how involved you are with the film before you go on the side of appropriate sentiment or decry sentimentality. Many audiences will share the sentiment in this story of three human beings who, by chance, interact with each other and whose lives are changed.

In some reviews, the writers and speakers have noted the previous films by director Jason Reitman, Juno, Up in the Air, and Young Adult, which had strong and wry senses of humour. They seem to blame him for not continuing in this vein but he has moved towards a more humane story and characters.

1. The impact of the film as drama? As romance? As a family story? As a rites of passage story?


2. The title, the four days at the end of August? The days titled on screen, the experience of the weekend? The immediate aftermath? The long-term aftermath?

3. The strong cast?

4. The photography, New Hampshire summer, the town, the surroundings? The musical score and its moods?

5. The director, his work, a different kind of story, pace? The performances? The editing? A slow-burner? Emotional?

6. The introduction to Adele and Henry? The narration by Toby Maguire as the older Henry? His perspective? Adele and her depression, in the house, quite isolated, dressing drably, difficult to get up, manage the day, her love for Henry, his support, working in the house, his mother and the emotional bond? The comment on his being a substitute-husband – in most respects? The boy taking responsibility?

7. Henry, his age, his father leaving, going to see him on Sundays, in the diner, his father, his new wife, her baby, her son and his acidic remarks? Henry’s mother asking him about sex education? His father? His dreams? Meeting the young girl, talking, the library, the tough attitudes towards life, Frank? Her influence on his ideas about Frank? That he could be left behind, his asking his mother and reassurance? The girl guessing Frank’s identity? Her quick kiss – and saying it was the memory of his first kiss?

8. The initial shopping, Adele and her hesitancy, careful in driving the car, Henry putting it into gear? Henry and Frank, in the supermarket, the meeting, quiet, Frank asking him to help, the blood, his apprehensiveness, Adele and her fears, the drive home, Frank planning to spend a few hours and then leaving? The presuppositions about his guilt, the television coverage, the newspaper articles and headlines?

9. Frank’s character, Josh Brolin’s performance and presence? His story of appendicitis, the policeman going for a drink, his jumping from the second storey? Injuring his leg? His plan? The encounter with Adele and Henry, calling him Hank? His warnings? The flashbacks to his story, inserted throughout the narrative, his wife, her manner, the child, Frank holding it and loving it at the fair, her flirting, on the ground floor, the bath seeping, the close-up of the damp through the roof? The effect on his life? The murder charge? His sentence?

10. Frank in the house, tying up Adele up for plausibility? Always telling the truth? His becoming a father figure to Henry? Fixing things in the house, cleaning up, the very long sequence of cooking the peach pie and its consequences for Henry? The breakfast scene, Adele enjoying the breakfast? Things normal? Adele and her attending the wound? Talk, intimacy, the talk unseen, Henry trying to hear, looking through the door? Henry going shopping, the questions of the shopkeeper? His leaving the door open? The effect of Frank’s presence on Henry, on Adele? The neighbour coming in, with Barry, Adele reluctant, the mother saying he would watch the TV? His participating in the baseball practice, Hank and his learning to throw, Barry sitting in his chair, Adele and her reluctance but holding the bat? The barbecue and the food? Watching the television? Barry and his seeing Frank on television, unable to communicate this because of his muscular dystrophy, the suddenness of his mother slapping him?

11. The friendship of the neighbours, the man with the peaches and his reassuring Adele? The policeman, patrol, finding Henry on his walk back from his father’s, driving him home, apprehension for Henry and Adele, Frank watching from the window, carrying the box?

12. The plan, in Henry going to the library to get books on Canada? The young girl, her shrewdness, dealing with her own parents, the sardonic humour of her theories and observations?

13. Henry, the day with his father, uncomfortable, coming home, leaving a note in his father’s postbox, the consequences, his father phoning? The police coming?

14. The theme of pregnancy, and Adele and her memories of Gerald, to war, returning, marriage, happiness? Giving birth to Henry? The changes to her body, uncomfortable, illness, depression, the pathos of the miscarriages and the effect on her? The pregnancy, the birth, the child stillborn – and the nurse giving the child for Adele to hold? Gerald and his inability to deal with Adele’s condition, his leaving? His letter apologising to Henry and saying that if he had been a stronger man he could have stayed?

15. Packing, the hopes, Adele and Henry going to the bank, the teller and the questions, the manager, Henry and his joke about Bonnie and Clyde in going to the border – from the young girl? And Frank’s advice always to tell the truth?

16. His father and the letter, the phone call, the sirens, Frank tying up Adele again, his arrest?

17. Adele, after the arrest, going to plead Frank’s cause, the accusation of harbouring a criminal? Writing the letters, their being returned?

18. Henry, the years passing, at school, living with his father, visits to his mother, the importance of his dad’s apology? Henry’s return to his mother?

19. Adult Henry, married, the shop, baking, the peach pies, the article? Frank contacting him? Asking about Adele, his return and the happy reunion?