'Labor Day'

Expectation can be a tricky beast.

Until now, writer and director Jason Reitman was riding four for four.

“Thank You For Smoking” in 2005 was a brilliant satire of the tobacco industry. “Juno” in 2007 brought him mainstream success and his first Oscar nomination as a director. “Up In The Air” in 2009 solidified him as a critical darling, and 2011’s “Young Adult” was his most mature filmmaking to date.

Unfortunately, the melodrama of “Labor Day” isn’t worthy of his pedigree of films.

The year is 1987. Adele Wheeler, the ever-sensational Kate Winslet, and her son Henry (Gattlin Griffith) are forced to take an escaped convict by the name of Frank (Josh Brolin) home with them from the supermarket.

What follows could have been a tightly wound and morally ambiguous meditation on guilt, innocence and the lengths humans will go to for connection. Instead, we spend 111 minutes watching several dark events unfold with a little too much elegance and precision. It’s all tied together nicely with a bow on top.

Frank is a conflicted character, but too often he’s painted as a bright savior in a depressed mother’s life. Whether or not he’s guilty of the crimes he was imprisoned for, Reitman asks us to understand as Adele and Henry continue to harbor Frank in their home.

But we’re never left to question whether or not this makeshift family is the result of genuine love or a twisted, Stockholm syndrome-assisted manipulation.

Under those parameters, “Labor Day” may have flourished. Instead, there’s no room for deliberation about Frank’s intentions. Adele and Henry and, in turn, the audience, are coerced into accepting him without question.

Had the film been designed as the melodrama it so clearly wants to be, it might not have been such a disappointment.

Winslet, as in all of her underwritten roles, works wonders with the limited scale of emotions she’s been given. Even paltry shots of shaking hands and sweat-covered brows are elevated by her presence.

Brolin brings a tranquil intimidation to the table, as his character should. It’s a fine performance, but it never sparks because Reitman seems afraid to portray Frank as indefinite. There’s a tangible pressure to make him a wrongfully convicted criminal, and it serves the story poorly.

Given the talent pool both in front of and behind the camera, “Labor Day” had all the potential of the darkly comedic films Reitman has presented before, which makes its complacency that much more intolerable.

There’s a truly haunting film tucked somewhere in there. It’s just a shame it never creeps to the surface.