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Making the most of 'Labor Day'

The intense, exquisitely photographed domestic potboiler "Labor Day" (available Tuesday) transpires over the course of one summer's end in the mid-1980s. Kate Winslet (as a single mom) and Josh Brolin (as a prison escapee) try mightily not to betray how hard they're working to overcome the preposterous story. If only filmmaker Jason Reitman, best known for "Juno," had brought wit or swiftness to bear on Joyce Maynard's painfully trite and retrograde plot. It's difficult to believe a word, but you don't have to to luxuriate in Winslet and Brolin's chemistry. The Blu-ray (Paramount, $40; also DVD, $30) includes commentary and deleted scenes.

Washington Post