Jason Reitman has followed up the caustic black humour of Young Adult with an adaptation of Joyce Maynard’s novel Labor Day. The film – and because both its title and the source material are drawn from the US holiday we have to resist our burning need to stick a “u” in there – has a trailer, which you can see below.
brightcove.createExperiences();Labor Day focuses on 13 year-old Henry Wheeler (Gattlin Griffith), who struggles to be the man of his house and care for his reclusive mother Adele (Kate Winslet) while confronting all the pangs of adolescence. On a back-to-school shopping trip, Henry and his mother encounter Frank Chambers (Josh Brolin), a man both intimidating and clearly in need of help, who convinces them to take him into their home and is later revealed to be an escaped convict.
Though Henry and Adele are initially terrified of the imposing Frank, he slowly wins them both over, and he and Adele grow increasingly close. While this trailer does seem to give an awful lot away – spoilerphobes beware – it also gives a chance for Brolin and Winslet in particular to shine.
With Clark Gregg, Brooke Smith, James Van Der Beek in the cast (plus narration from Tobey Maguire as the older Henry), Labor Day is out in the UK on February 7.