My immediate takeaway from Jason Reitman’s “Labor Day,” which kicks off the Telluride Film Festival this afternoon at the annual patrons screening, was that it was an unexpected mature step for the filmmaker who has offered up such self-aware films as “Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno,” “Up in the Air” and “Young Adult.” There isn’t a whiff of that tone here whatsoever. The edge that has defined Reitman’s work has been set aside while a more refined, lived-in aesthetic has taken hold.

Those other films had a very distinct voice, and they were all great movies. This one is told in a completely different voice, however, and I guess that’s what I mean when I say the results are unexpected; it’s unusual to see a filmmaker tap another perspective on narrative so confidently this early in a career. Reitman is still under a decade in features, after all.

The work I was most reminded of was Clint Eastwood’s from the early-90s. Indeed, “Labor Day,” which is based on the novel by Joyce Maynard, feels like it was baked in the same oven as “A Perfect World” or “The Bridges of Madison County.” It sits with its characters, measured, patient with them.

The drama centers on Kate Winslet as Adele, the mildly reclusive mother of 16-year-old Henry (Gattlin Griffith). The two are taken captive by escaped convict Frank (Josh Brolin) in their New Hampshire home over a Labor Day weekend in 1987 (making the film’s debut this particular weekend all the more apt). But Frank isn’t what he seems to be and as we learn his story, the reason for Adele’s emotional neurosis and the impact the weekend has on Henry, the film becomes a story of family and, more profoundly, the burden of responsibility a young person has to the emotional well-being of a parent.

Continue reading Labor Day: Telluride Review