Movie · 2013 · Drama, Romance, Thriller · 1h 51m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 1.0/10 (57.3K ratings)
Overview
Two strangers are drawn together under incredible circumstances. What starts as an unforeseen encounter over a long holiday weekend soon becomes a second chance love story.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.0/10
IMDb: 6.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 34%
Metacritic: 52
TMDB: 7.1/10
Director
Jason Reitman
Production
Mr. Mudd, Indian Paintbrush, Paramount Pictures, Right of Way Films
Cast
Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Gattlin Griffith, Tobey Maguire, Tom Lipinski, Maika Monroe, Clark Gregg, James Van Der Beek, J.K. Simmons, Brooke Smith, Brighid Fleming, Alexie Gilmore, Lucas Hedges, Micah Fowler, Chandra Thomas, Matthew Rauch, Doug Trapp, Kate Geller, Ed Moran, Sam Rush
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, emotionally earnest melodrama with strong performances and a very specific, old-fashioned romantic fantasy at its core. It has enough atmosphere, tenderness, and oddball charm to work for some viewers, but the premise asks a lot of buy-in and the film’s sincerity can read as implausible or troubling rather than swoony.
Best for
Viewers who like heightened, sentimental romance-drama
Fans of Kate Winslet’s emotionally open performances
People drawn to domestic, small-town, late-summer melancholy
Audiences interested in offbeat, morally messy love stories
Skip if
You need a grounded or realistic relationship drama
You’re sensitive to coercive or Stockholm-syndrome-adjacent dynamics
You prefer thriller elements that actually pay off
You dislike earnest melodrama or storybook tone
Overview
Labor Day is one of those movies that commits completely to a very specific romantic fantasy, and your reaction will probably depend on whether you accept that fantasy at all. Jason Reitman stages it with a soft-focus nostalgia that makes the house, the baking, and the holiday-weekend isolation feel almost dreamlike, while Kate Winslet gives the film its most persuasive emotional anchor.
Worth noting
The problem is that the setup is so loaded that the movie can feel like it is asking viewers to ignore the most uncomfortable parts of its premise. What is meant to play as healing and second chances often lands as implausible, and the thriller framing never fully earns itself. Still, there is craft here: the performances are committed, the mood is carefully sustained, and the film has a strange, earnest sincerity that some viewers will find disarming.
Bottom line
If you want a polished, adult melodrama with a melancholy Americana surface, it has enough going for it to be worth a look. If you need your romance to feel emotionally or ethically grounded, this is likely to frustrate you more than it satisfies.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Willow Maclay (0.5★) · 903 likes
Things this movie says1. If you're a woman in a depressive funk all you really need is a man to make you happy. Even if he's a murderer. Any man will do really. Just make sure a dude saves you because if not you will just sit in a house and be sad forever. A guy will show you all about baking and tenderness and killing people and everything will be good and right.
2. If you're a young… more
Vivian (3.5★) · 766 likes
ladies 💁💄👗👠 get yourself a man 😏🤵 who can cook 🍖🥘🍑🍆🍒😋 garden 🌺🌻🌹🌷🌼🌸💕 is good with his hands 💪🔧🔨🚗⚾️🎻😜 and is doing 18 years for murder 😍😍😍😍
Toni (0.5★) · 467 likes
Im sorry what the fuck was that
「ᴠɪᴄᴛᴏʀ」 (4★) · 426 likes
She was so real for enjoying getting tied up and spoon fed by Josh Brolin.