By:Sterling Martinez

The movie Labor Day was based on the novel by Joyce Maynard.

It has only made about $5 million at the box office after coming out on Jan. 31, I truly enjoyed it and feel that, had it not opened the same weekend as the Super Bowl, it would have earned more.

Labor Day is truly a film for February. Jason Reitman takes Joyce Maynard’s novel beautifully illustrates love between a family and a passionate romance between a man and woman with the directing and screen writing he did for the film. Frank the male star of the film is an escaped convict who forced the female star Adele to take him back to her house as she and her son Henry were shopping. Despite the relationship being unorthodox and unexpected, I couldn’t help but root for the characters of the story.

There is never an eye not watered, breath not held or feeling unfelt. Reitman and the stars of the film, Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin take Joyce Maynard’s novel and make watching the film a truly empathetic privilege. There is never a moment in the film that has an emotion you can’t feel. Be it suspense, joy, passion, awe, content or even humor, the film gnaws on every nerve and tugs on every heart string.

Combined with the plethora of emotions are the stunning and creative ways the movie is filmed, the great camera angles and the settings of the scenes make the actions of the characters even more enticing and dramatic. As the different stories of the past and present play out we learn more about the characters’ pasts and causing viewers to change the way they see them.

As the characters spend the weekend together they make a peach pie together as a family and it is truly heartwarming as well as mouthwatering. The pie serves as a symbol that ties the relationship between the characters together. As the story plays out one never know what’s going to happen until they see that familiar pie again.

The plot is so thrilling and dramatic that it will drive you crazy. You never really know if the characters will get caught or end up happily living out their lives in Canada or anywhere else for that matter. You never really know until you know.

My absolute favorite part of the film was the narrating. The main character, Henry, narrates the story with a pristine tone and magnificent vocabulary and it really adds to the story.

Labor Day is a beautiful film that I thoroughly enjoyed watching. It may not be doing so hot at the box office now, but I remain faithful and optimistic that it will make its way into several hearts, even if it has to take a while.