Sunday, March 16, 2014

MOVIE - Labor Day

PG-13 (1:51)
Wide release 1/31/14
Viewed at Century Gateway 12 on Sunday afternoon, 3/16/14
RT Critics: 31  Audience: 58
Cag: 4/Liked it a lot
Directed by Jason Reitman
Paramount Pictures

Josh Brolin, Kate Winslet

My comments:  What do the critics know?  I liked it.  It was slow in places, but the tension built and built, the charisma between the two adult leads was lovely, and the part of 7th-grade Henry was played perfectly.  I loved the special touches added to make Frank's personality show through - the way he treated the neighbor-boy with cerebral palsy, his cooking and baking talents, his love of baseball.....  I couldn't wait to see the end credits, because the scenery was all Massachusetts - even though it was set in New Hampshire.  I've been down those roads before, I've seen those houses on those quiet streets - and sure enough, it was Massachusetts.  It couldn't have been anywhere else!

Reviews:  "Labor Day" centers on 13-year-old Henry Wheeler, who struggles to be the man of his house and care for his reclusive mother Adele while confronting all the pangs of adolescence. On a back-to-school shopping trip, Henry and his mother encounter Frank Chambers, a man both intimidating and clearly in need of help, who convinces them to take him into their home and later is revealed to be an escaped convict. The events of this long Labor Day weekend will shape them for the rest of their lives.

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