Labor Day

Narrated by now-grown Henry Wheeler (Tobey Maguire), Jason Reitman's romantic melodrama recalls what happened over Labor Day weekend in New Hampshire back in 1987, when precocious 13 year-old Henry (Gattlin Griffith) and his depressed, agoraphobic, divorced mother, Adele (Kate Winslet), encountered Frank Chambers (Josh Brolin). Frank asks them for a ride and a place to clean up—since he's got blood on his shirt—adding a threat: “Frankly, this needs to happen.” So Adele takes him home and tends to the wound on his side. Frank says he jumped out of a window, but she soon learns that he's just escaped from prison, where he was serving a 20-year sentence for murder. This hostage situation inexplicably—and improbably—turns erotic over a three-day idyll, as Adele seriously considers leaving with Frank for Canada, where they can make a fresh start together. Based on Joyce Maynard's pulpy 2009 novel, the film is most memorable for Brolin's peach pie crust-making sequence, as he and Winslet sexily knead dough. Aside from that, this is a maudlin fantasy with a contrived, compromised conclusion. Optional. [Note: Blu-ray extras include audio commentary (by writer-director Jason Reitman, cinematographer Eric Steelberg, and co-producer Jason Blumenfeld), an “End of Summer” making-of featurette (30 min.), deleted scenes (11 min.), and bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an uneven film.] (S. Granger)