Labor Day

While often enslaved to their less shallow influences, the films of Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air, etc.) have at least displayed a certain ambition up to this point. That may be why his mundane Labor Day was snuck into theaters after a fruitless Oscar campaign—it feels more like the first Sundance Film Festival submission of a self-serious novice than the product of an established director. Labor Day attempts to fold in larger themes about mental illness and sexual awakening, but at heart, this is domestic porn for lonely single mothers. Kate Winslet plays a depressed mom in 1987 who is forced to shelter a mysterious runaway convict played without interest by Josh Brolin. He promptly starts fixing floorboards, mending tires, baking pies, recharging her sexual batteries and otherwise establishing himself as the perfect man. That's not peach pie you smell cooking—it's hogwash.