Apple TV+ continues its string of movies that should be better than they are with the Jennifer Lawrence-led (mother!, Silver Linings Playbook) Causeway. Like many of its predecessors (Swan Song, Palmer, Cherry, Greyhound, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Finch, On the Rocks), first-time director Lila Neugebauer’s Causeway benefited from a successful marketing campaign, only to leave viewers to wonder what the original hype was about. However, I’d be remiss if I left off CODA, the Best Picture winner of 2021. The streaming service has potential as a movie distributor but has laid its fair share of duds. Causeway is no exception. It’s a mediocre movie at best.
Lawrence stars as Lynsey, a veteran of the U.S. Army who has returned from her Afghanistan deployment after an IED caused her severe brain injury. Before her return to her mother’s home in New Orleans, Lynsey undergoes an intensive rehabilitation program with an occupational trauma therapist, who reteaches her simple tasks such as standing, brushing her teeth, changing clothes, writing her name, and eating. I thought that this was where our film would remain.
However, much like what I’m associating with Apple TV+ original movies, we not only shifted away from this incredibly personal element, but Neugebauer takes us to an entirely different story. One minute, we see Lynsey looking as if she’s ready to give up because she can’t lift a spoon of soup to her mouth, and in the very next scene, we see her returning from a run. While I understand that we expect progression in rehab, it isn’t easy to process going from one extreme to the next without understanding the processes involved. It felt very unnatural to have such a gigantic time leap.
Watch my video review of Causeway above.
So in lies the problem of Causeway. It’s a movie that doesn’t follow the prototypical stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Neugebauer doesn’t deglamorize or glorify her at her best. Lawrence plays her most subdued character since her introduction to mainstream cinema with Winter’s Bone, a film that earned her the first of four Oscar acting nominations over six years. Like her character Ree in Winter’s Bone, Lynsey doesn’t turn heads in the same physical fashion as many of Lawrence’s other characters. She’s a small-town girl from New Orleans whose calling as an engineer in the U.S. military, and a return to active duty at her Afghanistan post is the only path she seems willing to accept, something she must convince Dr. Lucas (Stephen McKinley Henderson – Fences, Lady Bird) grant.
When Lynsey isn’t working on her recovery, she’s working on working on her relationship with her mother, picking up a job as a pool cleaner in one of the more upscale neighborhoods in the area, or developing a friendship with her mechanic, James (Brian Tyree Henry – Joker, If Beale Street Could Talk), a man who she’ll soon learn views himself in the same broken fashion that she views herself.
Causeway doesn’t fall into many of the same pitfalls as other movies and PTSD war-based movies. There was nothing that felt super traumatic or super dramatic. That is not a criticism, but it isn’t a compliment, either. Instead, this movie felt very flat. While I appreciated its toned-down look at this mental health condition, as it allowed us a glimpse of an illness that might seem invisible to others, Neugebaue never made me feel like Lynsey was struggling as much as we expected to see. Most of this resulted from how quickly she moved past the rehabilitation process before Lynsey’s return home. There wasn’t a moment after the film’s first fifteen minutes that I felt Lynsey wouldn’t be okay. It’s never a good sign for a drama-based film.
Similarly, I didn’t feel a connection between Lynsey and James. Their impending friendship could be seen from a mile away. Their unifying traumas and wounded pride ultimately landed them with that whimsical look toward one another as the credits started to roll. Both actors deserved better than one-dimensional characters working with a watered-down script.
As much as I wanted to like Causeway, the most I could give it was a tempered appreciation for what I believed Neugebaue was attempting to reach. Ultimately, it never felt more than a made-for-television movie.
Plot 7.5/10
Character Development 7.5/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 7/10
Screenplay 7/10
Directing 7/10
Cinematography 8/10
Sound 7/10
Hook and Reel 6.5/10
Universal Relevance 8/10
73.5%
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