Jason Reitman was on quite the winning streak for a while From his feature debut THANK YOU FOR SMOKING through JUNO, UP IN THE AIR, and YOUNG ADULT, Reitman was garnering equal parts critical acclaim and praise from audiences. Then, he made LABOR DAY. Starring Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet, LABOR DAY seemed like a slam dunk for the son of legendary director Ivan Reitman. But, not only did it bomb with audiences but critics were left cold.
Now, Jason Reitman has put together MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN starring Adam Sandler in a dramatic role. During an interview with Screen Crush where he defends Adam Sandler against critic who claim he has given up on making movies in favor of churning out crap, Reitman turned on himself and admitted that he made a mistake directing LABOR DAY.
“You’re always trying. And I say that sensitively, because I can imagine someone looking at ‘Labor Day’ and going, “Remember when he fucking gave up?” It’s shitty as hell. It’s totally shitty… I’ve done more work on that movie than I’ve ever done on a movie. I’m proud of it. And then it doesn’t land and then you realize, oh, this was a misguided effort, for whatever reason. My dad said something so smart to me. He does all the time, but he said, “I was watching ‘Labor Day’ again, it just struck me all of a sudden that you weren’t making a movie about a man and a women, you were making a movie about a kid,” … and Paramount marketed a movie about a man and a woman and everyone wrote about a movie about a man and a woman and it all became this kind of romance. And he said, “You really didn’t care about the romance, did you?” And I said, “No, the romance really was a B plotline to this kid.” So, if I somehow would have focused the movie on the kid? I don’t know. When a band plays a song outside of their genre, there’s a bit of, “Can you please go back to playing the songs we like?”
It is nice to see a director admit he made a mistake rather than trying to defend a film, but it does make you wonder if he would have still made this statements had LABOR DAY proven a box office success. MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN looks like a return to form for the filmmaker and does look like it delivers the kind of high caliber performance from Adam Sandler we have seen in movies like SPANGLISH and PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. Hopefully this is a moment of redemption for both of them.
MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN debuted this week at the Toronto International Film Festival and opens wide on October 3rd.
