As we’ll be saying all week, no doubt, yesterday we launched our Best Films Of 2014 We’ve Already Seen. The feature has 21 full movie write-ups but mentions closer to 50 films in total. One of them is Jason Reitman’s drama, “Labor Day,” starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. Like “Young Adult,” Reitman’s latest failed to make much of a dent during awards season, but not for being too dark and caustic like its antecedent, but perhaps for being too … mild?
As we noted yesterday, “Labor Day” wasn’t the failure some suggested it was out of Telluride, “but [was] ill-suited material for Reitman to adapt. Some of us admire its commitment to its material—pitched somewhere between a soft thriller with a feminine bent and a somewhat soapy melodrama—and Reitman’s desire to try something completely out of his wheelhouse, but all of us agree it didn’t quite work (review here).” Given the trailers and clips so far. That sounds about right.
Reitman might have been the golden boy of Oscar season for a few years running (“Juno,” “Up In the Air”), but it appears he isn’t crying over spilled milk, which is the right attitude. When “Labor Day” failed to make a splash in Telluride in September at the beginning of awards season, the writer/director just bucked up and announced a new project (one with Adam Sandler, no less that yep, is on our Most Anticipated Films Of 2014 list), and one that should be shooting very soon if it hasn’t already. You’ve got to admire that work ethic and keep moving forward attitude. “Labor Day” opens nationwide on January 31st. New photos and TV spots below.