Causeway, 2022.
Directed by Lila Neugebauer.
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Brian Tyree Henry, Linda Emond, Jayne Houdyshell, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Frederick Weller.
SYNOPSIS:
A US soldier (Jennifer Lawrence) suffers a traumatic brain injury while fighting in Afghanistan and struggles to adjust to life back home.
Jennifer Lawrence returns to the kind of small character-driven, sparsely populated drama she first inhabited in Debra Granik’s brilliant Winter’s Bone, and it serves the two-time Academy Award winner superbly in what is her most nuanced and brittle performance yet.
Sensibly eschewing the physical rehabilitation of Lawrence’s IED-injured soldier, condensing it down to the opening salvos when a different take would have made it the driving narrative, Causeway is much more concerned with the psychological restoration of its characters and the treatment of their deep-set scars.
Essentially a two-hander between Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry’s well-intentioned mechanic, the two compliment each other wonderfully, conveying an understated complexity to their characters that elevates the drama in a way that might not have been possible had it been two other performers.
Economical with their words, both as a manifestation of their respective traumas, and as a reluctance to let someone in, there’s an unforced symbiotic relationship between them which slowly propels the movie, without ever feeling as though it will trip into sentiment or screenwriting 101 conformity. It all feels remarkably lifelike, and effortlessly natural.
Making her feature-film debut, Neugebauer employs a dull colour palette and shoots everything in such a sterile fashion, which accentuates the lonely landscape in which these wounded spectres are floating out-of-place. There’s a lovely opening shot in which Lawrence is sat in the foreground, with the world in which she is about to step into following her accident completely out-of-focus. It’s a such a deliberate and effective framing device that’s symptomatic of a film which doesn’t waste a moment. Even the shots in which the camera lingers on Lawrence feel heavy with emotion.
Having said that, the script still makes use of its lead actors ability to deliver the awards-reel moments, and while Causeway is refreshingly lacking in such grand-standing scenes, the moment in which Lawrence describes her accident delivers a deeper impact than any battlefield flashback could have done. The same goes for Henry and his low-key reveals. Their half-finished anecdotes and abandoned exchanges add real weight to their friendship. It’s almost as if you shouldn’t be listening in, like you’re intruding on a personal level.
Causeway is a very quiet, contemplative film, and it’s in that silence that we’re reminded just how great Jennifer Lawrence is. Lila Neugebauer’s oft-told tale of PTSD could so easily have joined the overstuffed ranks of been-there-done-that war-veteran coming home dramas, destined to be lost among the algorithm alongside the likes of Thank You For Your Service or Brothers, but thanks to its authentic execution and delicate lost soul performances, it remains an undeniably moving portrait of pain and repair.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★ ★
Matt Rodgers – Follow me on Twitter
