My 3-Word Movie Review for Labor Day: Laborious.Peach.Pie. I know that doesnt make any sense to anyone reading this, but it will if you see it. This film takes place over - you guessed it- Labor Day weekend, 1987 in a small town in New Hampshire (though Acton, MA was actually used). This is one loooong weekend. Partially narrated in memoir style by Henry, only son of Adele (Kate Winslet), a thirteen-year-old who lives with his mostly agoraphobic and fragile mother, and spends less time with his dad, (Clark Gregg) who is now married to the secretary he had an affair with and her kids. The beginning of the movie is sooo slow and the dum da dum da dum suspenseful music is downright annoying, as we see a car driving sloooowly through country lanes. I have to mention the score. Music can make a movie. Can you imagine Jaws without the creepy theme played throughout? In this film, the score to me, was the opposite. It actually didnt seem to fit and I found it distracting in much of the film. (Rolfe Kent, who also composed for another of Jason Reitmans movies, Up in the Air.) Adele has white-knuckled the car into town with Henry, because his pants are too tight. Just the act of driving into town is excruciating for her, and, in turn, for us, as viewers, to watch.) While in the clothing store, an escaped convict approaches Henry, who has wandered away from his mother. Josh Brolin adequately plays Frank, who tells Adele that he must insist that she drive him to her house. Hes been injured jumping out of the 2nd floor of the prison hospital, where he went for an appendectomy. He says he will stay the night to rest his injured leg, and then catch the nearby train when he hears it come through the next day.. But of course the train isnt running on schedule and what ensues is the longest Labor Day weekend ever, yet the shortest amount of time in terms of what all develops between the characters along the way. There were so many other implausibilities along the way, a couple of which put me into brain over entertainment mode and had me analyzing where the film was not deep enough by a long shot to warrant such. Example: Its 1987, and a little girl makes a comment to Henry about the connection between Alzheimers and aluminum. I may be wrong, but I dont think anyone had heard of such a thing back then......it really bothered me. But hey, if you can believe an extremely fragile shut-in whose whole life is her son falling head over heels in 3 days time with a guy who is supposedly a murderer- then I guess anything is possible. I honestly think the story had so much more potential and I dont know who to fault here- so Im saying Jason Reitman, who wrote, produced and directed it. Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin were very good with what they had to work with. The young son, played by Gattlin Griffith, was very good too. I was honestly shocked, given that this was pretty mundane a film, however, to actually tear up a bit- okay, mist up a bit- at the end, though. Toby Maguire makes little more than a cameo near the end. And youll get the pie. Oh, the pie!! Ill give it ★★★, because I dont know how to make a half-star. Yeah, 3 will work because of the actors. But its scant.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 05:01:54 +0000
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