TIFF22 REVIEW: Causeway Is a Story About Recovery, Or So We’re Told

Jennifer Lawrence looking out of a bus window in a scene from Causeway

In theatre director Lila Neugebauer’s feature debut Causeway, a young army engineer, Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence), returns to her home in New Orleans to recover from injuries both physical and psychological.

Causeway

Lila Neugebauer (director), Otessa Moshfegh, Luke Goebel, Elizabeth Sanders (writer), Diego Garcia (cinematography), Robert Frazen ACE, Lucian Johnston (editor)
Jennifer Lawrence, Brian Tyree Henry (cast)

September 10, 2022 (TIFF)

Content warning: themes of depression, anxiety, and mental distress

Causeway is purportedly a film about recovery—from injury, from trauma, from mental distress. The opening sequence is of Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence) undergoing extensive physical therapy and care as she attempts to recover from an as-yet unknown injury. But she’s back on her feet in no time and therein lies the problem with Causeway

The throughline in the film is that Lynsey has to deal with her trauma, from her army experience and before, and she just happens to befriend James (Brian Tyree Henry) who is also facing similar issues. But their trauma only crops up as plot points.

Everything in Causeway takes place only to be neatly wrapped up. We are told Lynsey has memory issues, but it never appears again and she never consults her notebook as a guide once that plot point is wrapped up. Lynsey has one ‘glitch’ in her body precisely when needed, but throughout the film she is perfectly fine. Lynsey is the Hollywood version of injured—she is perfect in every way, but there’s this chink in the armour which is preventing her from achieving her goal. Despite the character having been part of a grievous incident, she doesn’t have a single scratch on her, not even those slick Hollywood scars. To make matters worse, it’s implied that one character was scared to meet Lynsey after the incident and is relieved that she’s still beautiful. Lynsey is filmed undressing around four times, and each time we’re supposed to believe this is someone who escaped an explosion that set her comrade on fire. How convenient that the protagonist has not a blemish on her. This was also an issue with the writing in scriptwriter Otessa Moshfegh’s book Eileen so I’m not surprised this kind of characterization was part of this film as well. Our suspension of disbelief can only stretch so far.

On the other hand, there’s James who does have a physical injury which is shown to us late in Causeway for reasons beyond me. First of all, it’s 2022, and we have an able-bodied actor playing a disabled character. I didn’t even realize James had a disability, which is fine, but once it’s revealed, his disability and how it was caused become his whole identity. 

The promotional material mentions how New Orleans is a key figure in the film, but I never got a specific sense of place from this film. I also haven’t traveled around America much, so perhaps the distinctiveness of the city passed me by. But, in all honesty, the film could have been set in any part of the US, and it wouldn’t have mattered. 

Causeway also has strange continuity errors that kept distracting me during its runtime—at one point, Lynsey brings her suitcase to her old house but enters without it and immediately falls asleep, so where did it go? When she first arrives home, we are told there’s a homecoming party planned for her but we never see it. Did it never take place, or did they not show it to us? Either explanation would have had an impact on Lynsey. Later, her car breaks down, which was seemingly her only transport, so how so does she get to and from work? 

The film has moments of contemplation about mental health, but it’s skin-deep. There’s no cohesion to the message because the film is full of cliché plot points. There’s a scene in a bar where a random guy starts hitting on Lynsey and doesn’t take the hint. While this is unfortunately a reality for a lot of women in public spaces, the entire incident boils down to Lynsey and James establishing what their relationship is. The scene essentially takes place to be the catalyst for Lynsey to reveal something about herself and the filmmakers make such a big deal out of something that’s relatively normal nowadays. Worse, the reveal is undone by an action later in the film that’s so contrived I couldn’t believe they wrote that in. 

Really the only emotional scene in Causeway is in the last 15 minutes. Other than that, it’s impossible to identify the motivations of the main character. She’s a blank canvas, but she’s not numb. Who even is Lynsey outside of the trauma that we’re told she’s facing?

Lawrence is completely miscast in the role. She looks like a college student on summer break. She doesn’t look the part of a military vet recovering from an injury. And while yes, everyone reacts differently to such incidents, her performance is unconvincing. 

I watched this film primarily for Brian Tyree Henry since he’s always the best part of any project he’s in. He continues his streak in Causeway, but this isn’t his best work. Henry came across as unsure of himself in his first few scenes, but once he finds his stride, he’s such a natural. The way he delivers his lines, whether they’re humorous or emotional, Henry is guaranteed to get an audience to react to him. Unfortunately, this role hardly does him any favours. It’s time for a Henrynaissance.

Causeway lacks a central theme for telling the story it wants. It tries to unpeel the layers of trauma for the characters, but with a bland leading performance, confused characterizations and generic cliché writing, the story never quite finds its voice.

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Monita Mohan

Monita Mohan

Monita is the Marketing Manager of The Walrus by day, and an entertainment writer by night. Her bylines have appeared on HuffPost, Tor.com, Women Write About Comics, Collider.com, Fansided websites Bam Smack Pow and Show Snob, as well as on Vocal. She also (briefly) co-hosted the pop culture podcast, Stereo Geeks.

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