Acton Hits the Silver Screen This Weekend with 'Labor Day' Release

First you saw these trailers and then you saw these trailers. And now, finally, you can see the movie filmed in Acton during the summer of 2012. 

"Labor Day," the major motion picture based on the Joyce Maynard novel of the same name, directed by Jason Reitman and staring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, is set for its wide release this Friday, Jan. 31. 

From a press release shared with Patch ahead of the movie's filming: 

"LABOR DAY" centers on 12-year-old Henry Wheeler, who struggles to be the man of his house and care for his reclusive mother Adele while confronting all the pangs of adolescence. On a back-to-school shopping trip, Henry and his mother encounter Frank Chambers, a man both intimidating and clearly in need of help, who convinces them to take him into their home and later is revealed to be an escaped convict. The events of this long Labor Day weekend will shape them for the rest of their lives.

Since its festival debut and limited release at Christmas, "Labor Day" has garnered mostly positive reviews, if not over-the-top in their praise for the film.

As of Tuesday afternoon, "Labor Day" had a 60 percent positive review on Rotten Tomatoes.  

"Labor Day is one of those movies that either gets you to buy in and play along, or loses you at a crucial moment, earning only your mockery for the rest of its running time," film critic Marshall Fine blogged on the Huffington Post, a sentence before announcing himself among those who bought in. 

Anthony Lane of The New Yorker, on the other hand, wasn't so easily hooked. He did offer praise for the cinematography (by Eric Steelberg) and the skill of Josh Brolin. "You can love the look of the movie and still not believe a single word of it," Lane wrote. 

Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey, meanwhile, praises the acting, cinematography and score, but says the flashbacks integral to the plot don't translate so well from novel to film. "Yet if you can get past the past, which I recommend, what is left is a lovely, intimate film about longing and love," Sharkey wrote.  


Now Tell Us: Will you see "Labor Day?" If so, will it be for the story or to see Acton on the big screen?