Intimate Character Study Causeway Confronts the Hell of Healing

The emotional resonance of Causeway, the film debut from theater director Lila Neugebauer, is entirely indebted to the staggering performances of its lead actors. Jennifer Lawrence plays Lynsey, a former Army engineer who suffers a traumatic brain injury in Afghanistan and returns stateside as a result. She meets James (Brian Tyree Henry, arguably the powerhouse of the two) in her hometown of New Orleans, driving her busted truck into his auto body shop by mere chance. Their burgeoning connection propels the film through a (slightly laggy) 91-minute runtime, the two taking turns divulging harsh, intimate truths about their imperfect pasts. While Lawrence and Henry imbue each scene they share with oscillating doses of humor and melancholy, the final product feels somewhat strained and stunted, particularly in its investigation into the hellish reality of actively trying to heal.

We first meet Lynsey as a recently-wounded combatant, confined to a wheelchair and with a kind caregiver named Sharon (Jayne Houdyshell) before she heads back to New Orleans to move back into her childhood home. Her only family is her mother (Linda Emond), whose lifelong ambivalence toward Lynsey is conveniently captured when she forgets to pick up her veteran daughter at the bus station. Nevertheless, she brushes off her mother’s negligence and puts all of her energy into quickly finding a job. She happily accepts a pool-cleaning gig on the spot; anything to save her from mom’s offer to work in her office building.

Lawrence’s portrayal of Lynsey is suffused with a subtle awkwardness that’s the perfect contrast to James, who exudes Henry’s natural charm and charisma. The duo regularly discuss the traumas that have irreparably shaped their current lives (though James is often asked to reveal more about his heartache than Lynsey is)—a highly effective (if unhealthy) method for forming a co-dependent relationship. They begin seeing each other constantly, driving around in James’ car before settling in for the night to drown their sorrows in beer and blunt smoke. Their confessions to each other are powerful, but it’s nonetheless obvious that they’re both dancing around a lot of facts that they’d rather not rehash, confront or acknowledge at all. They don’t press each other to reveal more than they’re comfortable with.

Co-written by Elizabeth Sanders, Ottessa Moshfegh (the novelist behind Eileen and My Year of Rest and Relaxation) and Luke Goebel (Moshfegh’s husband), the story borders on pessimistic, likely due to Moshfegh’s hand in shaping the narrative. Of course, both characters act selfishly on occasion (with Lynsey making some pointedly brutal accusations against the comparatively sparing James), but the clever cynicism inherent to Moshfegh’s bibliography is totally absent. Even the institutional failures inherent to the characters’ struggles—namely as it concerns military and healthcare systems in this country—are hardly addressed. For a writer known for her incisive societal observations, the relative lack of broader intellectual investigation in Causeway is surprising.