Film review: Labor Day
Embellished with a present-day voiceover that harks back to events of one sweltering summer in 1987, Labor Day woos us with stirring performances, Eric Steelberg’s sun-dappled cinematography and Rolfe Kent’s elegiac orchestral score.
Scenes between Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin as the doomed lovers simmer with eroticism, including a glorious set-piece with a homemade peach pie that makes our mouths water.
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Hide AdFifteen-year-old Gattlin Griffith is equally compelling as the painfully shy teenage son, who witnesses this mending of broken hearts in impossible circumstances.
Yet for all of its impressive qualities – and they are bountiful – Labor Day isn’t quite the sum of its parts. The condensed timeframe of the central romance strains credibility and Reitman’s mosaic of flashbacks creates a fractured chronology that hampers dramatic momentum, dissipating the sense of dread and longing that should permeate every frame.