"Causeway" is the dictionary definition of a three-star movie: Risks are taken, sometimes props are mishandled. Jennifer Lawrence juggles colorful beanies, and drops several--but, still, it's a spectacle!
Lawrence is a woman in her thirties who has just returned from Afghanistan. Her nurse, Jayne Houdyshell, is helping her to reenter civilian life. The nurse is quietly excellent; she explains that she was once assisting a wounded friend, and she noticed how much she enjoyed the work, and this led to a professional "second act" in her own life. Lawrence, perhaps envious, makes a kind of sneering expression and says, "You have a miserable job." Then she is appalled to think back on the words that have just slipped out of her own mouth.
Lawrence claims that she is so, so eager to return to combat. But eventually her actual story spills out: She was in a tank when an explosion occurred. She looked to one side and saw her comrade in flames. She understood that she needed to exit the tank--but she couldn't, because gunfire was everywhere. Scylla and Charybdis: the guns on the left, the imploding colleague on the right.
If Lawrence is so estranged from herself, is there any hope for this character? She doesn't know her own cell phone number; when a car repairman requests the digits, Lawrence becomes visibly panicky. Also, Lawrence can't really drive.
Unfortunately, the second act is less gripping than the first. Lawrence redeems herself through friendship. There is a new platonic love; it's (predictably) complicated. Brian Tyree Henry appears, and he tells a story about a traumatic car ride; the monologue is as original as a freshman piece for an undergraduate writing seminar. But even as the story takes on a paint-by-numbers tone, you sense that Lawrence is still enjoying herself. That's nice to see.
Right now, America can savor Bawdy Jennifer Lawrence; she is on the big screen, in "No Hard Feelings." But I also like "Tough and Embattled" Jennifer, if the script still allows her to be a human being. "Causeway" sometimes made me think of "Winter's Bone," which is high praise. This may be my only shot at a Lawrence/Houdyshell/Brian Tyree Henry evening--but it's nice to imagine a world in which these three could pop up, together, on screen, again and again.
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