Kernel Rating (out of 5): 
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Length: 111 minutes
Age Appropriate For: 14+. This is a coming-of-age tale set against a grown-up romance between a depressed mother and a criminal, so there’s some cursing, some violence, the discussion of how traumatizing miscarriages and terminated pregnancies are for women, and a fair amount of erotic tension, implied sexual activity, and sexual innuendo. This is really a movie targeted for older female audiences, so perhaps could be appropriate for mothers and teen daughters.
Do you think a woman unequivocally needs a man for fulfillment? Do you think a man who bakes you a pie but also happens to be a criminal is a totally appropriate father figure for your child? These are the kinds of frustrating plot points of ‘Labor Day,’ an impressively marginalizing film for women masquerading as a Nicholas Sparks-like love-conquers-all romance.
By Roxana Hadadi
Maybe the original novel “Labor Day,” by Joyce Maynard, is charming. Maybe the depressed-housewife-falls-in-love-with-a-criminal plot works in the written form. But as a film, directed and adapted by Jason Reitman and starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin? As a film, “Labor Day” is infuriating, woman-agency-stealing drivel.
