Labor Day Review - 2½ Stars

“Labor Day” arrives in time for Super Bowl Weekend — not the best time to release a movie.  Kate Winslet plays a depressed single mother living in a small town in the 1980s.  She and her son – on a rare outside the home shopping trip – encounter Josh Brolin, an escaped murderer on the lam.  He essentially kidnaps them forcing them to take him to their remote run down house.   But once inside Brolin wins them over, working around the house, changing the oil in the car and playing catch with the kid.  He wins over Winslet — even awakens her — with the emotional support she lacks.  Of course we learn Brolin didn’t murder on purpose.  +”Labor Day” has plenty of tension as we wait for his capture and for the outcome of the romance.   In spite of the creepiness of the story, the movie at times is actually fun — even a pleasure — to watch.  The much buzzed about scene of the three of them making a peach pie lives up to expectations and plays a bigger role in the story.   I caught a few hints of “Ghost” and “The Shawshank Redemption” and that’s not a bad thing in a movie.   Just one caution.  You’ll laugh at yourself thirty minutes after you leave for buying even a minute of this.  Does it deliver what it promises?  An unlikely romance.  Is it entertaining?  Better than expected but seriously…a murderer on the lam?  Is it worth the price of admission?  Maybe if you’re planning to skip the Super Bowl.