Because superstar Jennifer Lawrence is the star of Causeway, people might be expecting something a bit more, I don’t know, big? Those folks may be disappointed in this quiet character study about a young woman who has just returned from Afghanistan with lingering effects of a brain injury, and surely mild PTSD as well.
The film starts with Lynsey (Lawrence) being rolled out of a military hospital and into the caring arms of a woman who’ll be her transitional caretaker before she goes home. The narrative quickly moves to her arriving at the New Orleans house she grew up in. It’s apparently not a happy place, and when her mother’s greeting is “wait, you were supposed to arrive on Friday,” we know that Mom wouldn’t have reacted any differently on Friday.
Which brings up a good point – there is a lot that is communicated but not said out loud. You have to immerse yourself in the environment and watch the nuanced expressions.
I’ll skip some of the details of her relationship with her family and her Afghanistan experience, which will be revealed, as with most of the plot points, gradually and naturally.
I want to get right to the relationship Lynsey develops with the car repair shop man called James (a super magnificent Brian Tyree Henry.) She takes her broken down truck to his place, he ends up giving her a ride, and the two instantly have some kind of connection.
Maybe it’s that she notices in his limp, and with her own experience observing war veterans, that he’s walking on a prosthetic leg. Despite their relative comfort with each other, they will slowly peel back the past and confess the things they didn’t say right away.
Thank god the storyline doesn’t pair them up with romantic partners – the last thing the world needs is another romance. It’s much cooler that they develop a genuine friendship. By the way, reasons are given in the script for their platonic relationship, but the reasons don’t matter – we just accept them as they are paired.
I know this film hasn’t been for everyone. It’s quiet; its dynamic range stays rather in the middle without high highs or low lows, at least in the present, which is where we are. My own approach, as someone who has seen about 225 films this year, is to manage expectations: if you prepare yourself for, essentially, a two-act play with two main characters, it’s easier to appreciate the rhythm.
Lawrence’s expert acting may be too subtle for awards consideration, but I really hope voters will remember the performance given by Henry. It’s a tricky path and he navigates it beautifully.
In the end, Causeway is strong for what is doesn’t do. That’s rare for movies, and I liked that a lot.
Causeway is currently streaming on Apple TV+ and is also in theaters |Rated R | 3 out of 4 Stars
