Labor Day (film)

Labor Day
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jason Reitman
Produced by	Lianne Halfon Russell Smith Jason Reitman Helen Estabrook
Screenplay by	Jason Reitman
Based on	Labor Day by Joyce Maynard
Starring	Kate Winslet Josh Brolin Gattlin Griffith Tobey Maguire
Music by	Rolfe Kent
Cinematography	Eric Steelberg
Edited by	Dana E. Glauberman
Production company	Indian Paintbrush Right of Way Mr. Mudd
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	August 29, 2013 (2013-08-29) (Telluride Film Festival) January 31, 2014 (2014-01-31) (United States)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$18 million
Box office	$20,275,812

Labor Day is a 2013 American drama film based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Joyce Maynard. Directed by Jason Reitman, the film stars Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. The film was co-produced by Paramount Pictures and Indian Paintbrush, premiering at the Telluride Film Festival on August 29, 2013, and was a Special Presentation at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was released in the United States on January 31, 2014.

In 1987, Adele Wheeler is a depressed single mom who lives in a rural home with her 13-year-old son, Henry. While they are clothes shopping, a bloody man approaches Henry and makes them take him home to look after him. The man is revealed to be Frank Chambers, a convict who is wanted by the local police after breaking out of jail. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Frank is a Vietnam veteran who returned home and married his pregnant girlfriend, Mandy. A year after the baby's birth, Frank and Mandy had a fight, in which he asks if he's even the baby's father. During the fight, he pushed her against a radiator, resulting in her death. Simultaneously, through imagery, it is implied that the baby drowned. Frank was sent to jail for murder.

Adele tells Frank, seen through flashbacks, that she had a number of miscarriages after Henry, culminating with the full-term stillbirth of a baby girl. This has left Adele with severe social anxiety and depression, which Henry's father later explains to Henry as the reasons their marriage failed. Henry has tried to be both a son and a husband (innocently) but he realizes he can't provide all of the things Adele needs. Adele is a passionate woman who loves to dance and teaches both Henry and Frank separately to dance. Frank teaches Henry car repairs and other handyman/fatherly things. He also teaches Adele and Henry how to play baseball and how to bake a peach pie.

Adele and Frank fall in love and plan to escape to Canada with Henry, packing the car and cleaning out the house. Meanwhile, Henry develops a friendship with a mature, but manipulative girl named Eleanor, and goes to see her one more time before they leave. She manipulates him into thinking Adele and Frank are going to abandon him and he accidentally reveals Frank's past. Adele assures Henry she would never leave him. The morning they are going to leave, Henry takes a note to his father's house and leaves it in his mailbox. While he is walking home, a policeman offers to drive him home, and Henry has no choice but to accept. The policeman is suspicious of the packed car and nearly-empty house, but eventually leaves. Adele goes to the bank to get all the money out of her account, and the bankers too are suspicious. While Adele is gone, the neighbor comes over to give Adele some cinnamon rolls, and speaks to Frank. She, too, is suspicious of who he may be. Henry's father finds the note that Henry left, and calls the house wondering what is going on. Before Adele, Frank, and Henry can escape, they hear police sirens approaching. Frank ties Henry and Adele up before he goes out to surrender, so that they won't be charged with harboring a fugitive. It is not revealed who called the police to report Frank's presence at the house. Adele wants to plea in Frank's case but is warned by her attorney that if she does, Henry might be taken away from her. She writes letters to Frank but to protect her he returns them all unopened.