I
very seldom read reviews before going to see a movie preferring to read
them after. All I needed to know was that this movie : 1) was a lover
story as I am a sucker for them, 2) Kate Winslet was starring  3) as was
Josh Brolin, so off I went.

After reading the critic’s reviews
for “Labor Day” I felt they were very unfair and may drive away an
audience that would like it. Upfront just let me say that it is not a
Must See movie, or a classic, but it is a good old fashioned love story
without the ‘F’ word being used or showing sex acts on the screen--that
in itself is rare for a film today. Yes it is rated PG-13 for the theme,
sexuality in the sense that a man and woman become lovers, very brief
violence and, possibly, a bathroom scene. This is a Hollywood film where
the woman lead is a neurotic (Was there any other kind in the old love
story films?) and the man lead is masculine, caring, loving, a father
figure and, in spite of escaping from prison, is an upstanding man.

Kate
Winslet plays Adele who is almost catatonic after 3-4 miscarriages and
her husband leaving her while her adolescent son, Henry, played by 
Galttin Griffith, has, more or less, become her caretaker. They are both
persuaded, when Adele takes a rare outing to get some new school
clothes for Henry, in a somewhat threatening way by Frank, Josh Brolin,
who has just jumped out of a hospital after an appendix operation. What
kind of movie would it be if Adele said no to athe good looking  man.

Within
24 hours Frank makes himself at home in more than one way. He washes
and waxes a floor, teaches Henry and a neighbor’s son in a wheel chair,
played by Micah Fowler, how to play baseball, looks at a cord of
firewood and tells Adele she has been shortchanged, teaches Henry how
change a tire but, most important of all, makes chili and feeds Adele
spoonful by spoonful and involves her and Henry it making a delicious
looking pie! Heck I would want to marry him! Before you know it they are
planning to run away to Canada and start a new life as a family.

We
also meet Adele’s ex-husband, Clark Gregg, who is married and has a new
family and doesn’t pay too much attention to his first born and a new
girl in town played by Brighid Fleming who may or may not to be a
troublemaker but you won’t find out. She does supply some much needed
comedy relief.

The director/writer Jason Reitman errs in making
the picture too long by about 10 minutes, introducing a shocking scene
between Brooke Smith as the mother and Micah Fowler and then completely
ignoring it. He also completely misdirects the flashbacks at times no
one never knowing whether it is Adele’s or Frank’s story we are seeing .

Watching
Brolin and Winslet is always a treat and they have enough chemistry to
make many unbelievable scenes believable. Their faces are so interesting
to watch that when you see younger versions of them though they may
resemble the adults their faces are blanks.
It is worth seeing if for no other reason to find how they get a ‘happy Hollywood ending’ for “Labor Day”.