CAUSEWAY – Review

Jennifer Lawrence gives a heart-rending performance as a wounded Afghan war veteran healing from injuries, obvious and not, in Lila Neugebauer’s drama CAUSEWAY. CAUSEWAY, about a friendship that grows between two people still healing from injuries, has a contemplative pace but it is a fine showcase for Jennifer Lawrence, too long absent from this kind of in-depth role, and reminding us how very talented she is. The film played at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival and now is opening in theaters as well as streaming.

Lynsey (Lawrence) was an Army engineer serving in Afghanistan when an IED blew up her truck and sent her home to recover from extensive neurological trauma, but we meet her while she is still very disabled and slowly recovering. In tender, touching scenes, we see her character’s helplessness and frustration at the need, as she receives treatment at an rehab center, then in the home of a caring older woman. Lynsey’s injuries effected her brain as well as her body but both are making progress. When she is deemed well enough to be discharged to her mother’s home, where Lynsey grew up, in New Orleans, she clearly has doubts. But she is reassured arrangements have been made for her mother to meet her bus when it arrives in NOLA. She doesn’t.

Nonetheless, Lynsey finds her way there, where she is greeted affectionately by her mother Gloria (an excellent Linda Emond), who has been busy drinking and dancing at home with a boyfriend that she doesn’t bother to introduce to her daughter. With a sigh, Lynsey settles in to her childhood home, keeping her unreliable mother at arm’s length.

The mother is played splendidly by Linda Emond, who portrays her as a woman who seems to want to have a warmer relationship with her daughter but can’t quite follow-through. As Lynsey regains more strength and mobility, she sets up regular doctor’s appoints with Dr. Lucas (Stephen McKinley Henderson, in another of the fine smaller performances that dot this heart-felt drama). She used a borrowed truck, to get about but when the truck breaks down, a kindly mechanic named James (Brian Tyree Henry) offers her a lift and encourages her to get the truck fixed, even if it is not hers. The two strike up a tentative friendship, which grows slowly over time and picks up when Lynsey notices his prosthetic leg.

It is not romance but shared trauma that draws these two broken people together, but the feeling is deep. Plot-wise, there is not much to CAUSEWAY but as a showcase for Jennifer Lawrence, it is outstanding, and the same can be said for co-star Brian Tyree Henry.

Jennifer Lawrence does an outstanding job drawing us into Lynsey’s inner life. Lynsey is adrift, staying in a home to which she never expected to return and missing the camaraderie of the service, to which she still hopes to return. Her awkward relationship with her less-than-reliable mother does not help and while there is talk about a brother, he is notably absent. To pass the time, Lynsey takes a job cleaning pools, something she did as a teen, saying to her new employer that she just “likes water.” Cleaning pools on her own seems to settle her, going about it in an almost meditative way, and enjoying the occasional solitary swim. Periodically she encounters the mechanic, and they share a drink in a bar or an ice cream at a street-side stand, and just hang out. Sometimes she needles him to swim in one of the pools she is maintaining for out-of-town owners. He is happy to hang out at the pools with her, but is wary of the water.

Visually, this New Orleans has a quiet, languid beauty, with people living a simple life far removed from the French Quarter party. Nothing much happens for long stretches but the effect is more relaxing, even hypnotic, than one expects. We see a lot of graceful, greenery-encircled pools that invite a swim, something Lawrence does from time to time.

That same quietness marks the scenes between Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry too, scenes that are touching and warm, as the two share secrets and experiences. Both actors are at the top of their game, and work superbly together. There is a sense of loss that is often palpable in the air, and heartrendingly so when James recounts how he lost his leg.

As a showcase for the actors, CAUSEWAY shines. It is a treat to see Lawrence put through her acting paces her, and hopefully this will spark a return to bigger serious roles. Brian Tyree Henry is a revelation in his role, and it is hoped this signals bigger things for him as well.

CAUSEWAY opens Friday, Nov. 4, in select theaters and streaming on Apple TV+.