‘Causeway’: Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry Excel In Story of Escape and Recovery

 

When we first meet Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence), she can barely take care of herself. She struggles to get a toothbrush in her mouth, spouts at things that she doesn’t mean to say, and needs help learning how to do the everyday things she used to take for granted—all thanks to a brain injury she suffered while serving in Afghanistan. As soon as she starts to feel some semblance of normalcy, Lynsey starts trying to figure out how to reenlist, an idea that everyone but herself believes to be a terrible idea. Ever since she has returned home in New Orleans, Lynsey feels the need to escape this place she already made it out of once before.

Causeway, from Maid director Lila Neugebauer, has its moments where it seems like a story we’ve seen all too often before, as a person who has left the service attempts to return to this dangerous line of work. Causeway shows the nightmares that come out of nowhere, the moments where the past hits the lead character, and just looking at Lawrence as she rides the bus into New Orleans, you can see the vulnerability and fear of returning home. To Lynsey, it seems as though the risk of getting blown up by an IED is safer than coming back home.

But as Causeway unravels and gets further away from this dedication to returning to war, the better this story becomes. This is largely thanks to a relationship that springs up between Lynsey and James (Brian Tyree Henry), a mechanic who starts hanging out and helping Lynsey in her day-to-day. The screenplay by Elizabeth Sanders, Luke Goebel and Ottessa Moshfegh starts to shift away from a coming home story, and more towards the shared trauma that a place can impose on someone, and the friendships that make these experiences slightly better.

It’s great to see Lawrence back in a role where she can really show off her acting talents, especially in the quieter moments. Again, it’s in Lynsey’s eyes where we can see the weight of everything she’s considering. Lynsey clearly thought she was out of New Orleans for good, but now, she’s back living with her mother (Linda Emond), who does nothing but disappoint, and remembering her junkie brother who also found his own way to escape this home.

The same is true of Henry’s James, who is also shaken by trauma, after a car accident caused him to lose his leg. James is certainly more open than Lynsey, but there’s still a part of himself that is guarded. He’s known loss and pain in his life, yet he hasn’t closed that part of his heart off entirely. James plays this role with such compassion and heart, even when he’s simply assisting Lynsey in her day-to-day tasks, sharing a snow cone with her, or defending her at a bar. Lawrence is great—but we already know that. Here, Henry gets a great opportunity to show he’s an excellent lead, and absolutely nails it, stealing Causeway in every scene he’s in.

But it’s when Lynsey and James get together that Causeway truly shines. Their bond is clearly important to both of them at this time in their lives, and the care they immediately have for each other is palpable. Causeway is at its best when it's just Lawrence and Henry playing off each other, simply sitting on a park bench, drinking a few beers, and opening up to each other. While these both will discuss their traumas with each other, there’s a lightness to these discussions, one that makes these memories decidedly part of their past, instead of always in the forefront of their minds.

Causeway’s screenplay frequently misdirects the audience, making them think they’re watching one type of film when they’re really watching another. In the very beginning, Causeway seems to be about a woman returning from war and the difficulties in readjusting to everyday life. Then, Causeway puts it in the audience’s mind that this might be a will-they-won’t-they story for the Lynsey and James characters. But instead, Causeway attempts to tell a larger story about the things we do to escape, whether it’s through quite literally leaving the country to go fight a war that would be better than staying at home, to finding someone else in your life who can help make the weight of life a little more bearable. Causeway presents the idea that home—however you define it—can be a prison of our own making, and yet, sometimes, that might not be such a bad thing.

Neugebauer, directing her first film, and cinematographer Diego García excel at making the world around Lynsey just somber enough for us to understand her desire to escape. Especially through the eyes of James, we can see the simple beauty of New Orleans and a city that he has lived in his entire life and has so designs to leave. Whereas when we see Causeway through Lynsey’s viewpoint, it’s dreary homes, dirty pools in forgotten backyards, and hot, humid streets. But when these two are together, again, the warmth of the city permeates their pain. In one scene where James takes Lynsey to his home, for the first time, we feel the comforts of home, the beauty of making a home that one appreciates and loves—a feeling that Lynsey hasn’t known when living with her mother.

Neugebauer’s debut film shows great promise, Lawrence hasn’t had a role this great in years, and Henry once again proves that he’s one of the most exciting actors on the rise right now. Like the relationship between Lynsey and James, Causeway is a film that slowly grows on you, a film that puts on a tough front—with its devastated characters and desire for escape—yet at its center is a tremendous about of heart, love, with its found families and shared pain.