Labor Day movie review

A few weeks back I got the opportunity, along with two of my book clubs, to read Labor Day by Joyce Maynard. For the most part, everyone liked it just fine and felt it was a pretty quick read. I was excited to see the movie because it stars a few of my favorites, Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet. My book club ladies saw the movie at a few different times, a few of here, a bunch of us at another time.
The consensus was the movie was not far from the book and was exactly what we all expected; a Lifetime melodrama (not that that is a bad thing).

Here are few thoughts from my book club ladies:

"I thought the movie was a bit more believable than the book at the beginning in that they made it seem more like a kidnapping and the single mom wasn't just bringing home a random convict to expose her child too. I wasn't very impressed though. All my questions of why and how that I found very strange about the book and made me feel like huge sections of information were missing still existed in the movie. The fact that this all happened over a weekend makes it pretty hard to swallow."

"Followed the book well... except for making him actually kidnap them. Very " hallmark channel"."

Not a five star rating, obviously. I don't think Kate Winslet deserves any acting nods, for this was not her finest hour. In fact, most of her nervous being bothered me even though I totally understood it. It seemed forced, overly dramatic.

Josh Brolin's character was right on; the brooding, misunderstood, "I've come to save" you hunky handyman. The scenes where his story was told in flashback form I thought would be a bit confusing to those who did not read the book.

I liked how innocent the son was. I didn't think it needed to go into his issues with his sexuality and growing up.

Overall,we had a pleasant time hanging out and seeing something new, something we probably would not have gone to see otherwise.

We didn't love it and we didn't hate it.

Happy reading (and viewing) and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child