Labor Day - A Labour of Love

From the front cover and other visual promotional material, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is some sort of romantic drama.  And you’d probably be right.  Sort of.  It’s a romantic drama that is masquerading as a crime film.

Josh Brolin plays an escaped convict who holds Kate Winslet (and her son) hostage while his wounds heal. It sounds like the plot of a thriller, but it isn’t.  There’s never really enough tension to make it particularly thrilling.  Amazingly, the two leads fall in love and this is the story of their coming together.

And that’s about it.  There really isn’t that much else to it.  There are a few minor sub-plots surrounding the other people in the town and whether they’ll discover they have an escaped prisoner in their midst.  Again, this area is never truly explored and doesn’t add much to the story.
Therefore, it’s pretty much a straight love story about how two mismatched people find each other in odd circumstances.

I read online that this is a ‘women’s film’ (primarily).  Possibly, but it’s well-acted enough to be engaging to both sexes.  It’s certainly not fast-paced, so it’s probably best you prepare yourself for a slow burner with a pretty straight-forward plot.  It’s nearly two hours, too, so it never feels like it’s flying by.

I enjoyed it, however, despite the excellent performances and beautiful scenery, I’m not sure I could be bothered to sit through it again.  It’s such a simply story that I feel I’ll probably remember everything about it for a long time to come (largely because there isn’t too much to it!).

Nice, but slow.  You have been warned.

6/10 May just keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights