Liars and Saints

 "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 ...

 This is a movie about three sociopaths, and the script asks us not to notice the "mental illness factor." The characters played by Jennifer Lawrence, Matthew Broderick, and Laura Benanti all behave in an inexcusable way; as "penance," the Lawrence character is set aflame and tossed into the ocean (actually, tossed from the windshield of a speeding car). But an ocean can't turn a sociopath into a functioning person. You have to turn off your brain; just suspend disbelief. I've heard that Jennifer Lawrence is perhaps unhappy with her career. The Ringer says that Lawrence has the charisma of Goldie Hawn 2.0; she should be doing comedies. But, for years, she was sandwiched into dreary, airless films ("Hunger Games," "X-Men"), and her few entertaining moments happened only in Fallon/Cohen/Letterman interviews. I'd love to see more comedy from Lawrence; like many ticketholders, I was dazzled when the newest Lawrence character emerged from ...