Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry Captivate in Causeway: Review
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The post Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry Captivate in Causeway: Review appeared first on Consequence.
The Pitch: The idea of home is a complicated one. For some, it’s a North Star, safe, familiar, and steady. For others, it’s a place worth rejecting; people shuck off associations with their places of origin and reinvent themselves constantly. The intricacies around this concept — the good, the bad, and the ugly of this thing we call home — make for the kind of subject matter primed to be explored through film, just as director Lila Neugebauer does in her latest, Causeway. The film was produced by Lawrence’s own production company, Excellent Cadaver and is set to arrive on Apple TV+ on Friday, November 4th.
The story revolves around Lynsey, a soldier and engineer who suffered a traumatic brain injury in Afghanistan after an IED explosion and finds herself struggling to return to anything resembling everyday life back home in New Orleans. It’s here that she meets Brian Tyree Henry’s James, a kind mechanic and more than worthy scene partner for the formidable Lawrence.
The ties that bind these two to the same physical location are vastly different — but when it comes to the Causeway, the low-sitting 24-mile bridge that connects New Orleans to Louisiana’s North Shore, there’s only one way to get from Point A to Point B. At a tight 92 minutes, this film shares just one part of a long journey being taken by these two characters.
A Homecoming: The film marks a return to the screen for Jennifer Lawrence after a two-year acting hiatus, and what a genuinely welcome return it is. The Oscar-winning actress, who had topped lists as the highest-billed actress in the entire world, recently shared that she felt she had lost her “sense of control” at the peak of stardom. It eventually became easy to forget that the woman who carried the Hunger Games films and appeared regularly as Mystique in the X-Men franchise had her roots in independent cinema, and Causeway is a fantastic vehicle for reminding audiences of just how captivating Lawrence can be in the quietest moments.
Like her work in 2008’s devastating The Poker House or 2010’s Winter’s Bone (the latter of which became her critical breakthrough), Lawrence’s performance in Causeway is gripping; what’s more, unlike some other onscreen pairings this year where one actor is supremely out of their league, the dynamic between Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry is riveting and well-matched. Henry, known widely for his superb work on FX’s Atlanta, his MCU debut in Eternals, or his brief but memorably warm appearance in Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, is so grounded here that there are moments we feel like we are intruding into his life.
Lynsey crosses paths with James after some truck troubles; James’ gentle, easygoing nature leads to a natural friendship between the two. In Henry’s hands, James strikes the viewer as quietly observant, the kind of guy who can cut through tensions, read the energy of a room, or provide quiet assurance with ease. His acting is so subtle and interior that he is able to communicate with Lawrence, and with the audience, even when he’s not saying a word.
Causeway (Apple TV+)
The Big Easy: Filmed on location in New Orleans, there’s a consistent heat throughout the film. Layers are regularly stripped off, snowballs are enthusiastically eaten, and Lynsey’s new job as a pool cleaner — temporary, she insists to anyone who cares to listen — keeps us in a revolving door of luxurious, tempting poolsides. Meanwhile, against this contrasting backdrop, the friendship between Lynsey and James (without spoiling plot intricacies) remains just that — a friendship.
While Lynsey is haunted by her injury and struggles with the complications of an invisible injury, James lives the opposite way; a terrible car accident resulted in the loss of his leg, along with the life of a family member in the car with him, which has resulted in a deep fracture in his closest relationships. Lynsey is aching to get back to her life in Afghanistan, away from the instability of her childhood home and unreliable mother (Linda Emond, underutilized and never fully fleshed out as a character), while James could go anywhere in the world but chooses to remain in an enormous, empty house.
Eventually, when the pressures on both Lynsey and James outweigh their new and somewhat tenuous acquaintanceship, their respective secrets are dragged out into the light. A24 loves a good pool scene; the moment when these two characters have it out is draped in blue lighting and intimate framing (courtesy of cinematographer Diego García) in the backyard of one of the wealthy homes Lynsey tends to, with both surrounded by beer bottles and cigarette smoke in the kind of night that can teeter from a dream to a nightmare with the lightest push.
Begin Again: The supporting cast is as tight and neat as this film’s script and run time, with no moment wasted. Two fantastic character actors — Jayne Houyshell and Stephen McKinley Henderson — play essential roles in filling out Lynsey’s world. Houdyshell appears as Sharon, a kind caretaker who appears early in Lynsey’s road to recovery, carrying the majority of the dialogue responsibilities early in the film. Henderson is Dr. Lucas, a thoughtful psychologist working to ground Lynsey in her rush to return to her familiar life thousands of miles away from New Orleans.
Causeway (Apple TV+)
The film’s tagline is simply “Begin Again,” a phrase that applies most strongly to Lynsey and James’ journeys through the non-linear world of trauma recovery. There’s a sense that this film is inching forward to a more substantial conclusion, or a more definitive label for Lynsey and James, but there’s a restraint exercised by Neugebauer and writers Elizabeth Sanders, Luke Goebel, and Ottessa Moshfegh.
The point of this story is not a clean conclusion or trauma boxed up and tucked neatly away and wrapped in a bow. Rather, Causeway zeros in on just one chapter for two of the many, many people fighting battles both visible and invisible, and the empathy, sadness, connection, and joy that can all bloom from these spaces.
The Verdict: While one of the few downsides of Causeway is the lingering desire to spend more time with these characters, the film holds an excellent return to form for Jennifer Lawrence and makes a stellar case for many more leading man roles for Brian Tyree Henry.
Where to Watch: Causeway arrives on Apple TV+ on November 4th.
Trailer:
Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry Captivate in Causeway: Review
Mary Siroky
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