“Causeway,” starring Jennifer Lawrence as a US Army soldier recovering from physical, mental and spiritual injuries, is the furthest thing from a genre film. However, it belongs to what I’ve almost come to consider a genre: the somber, wordless, slow-burning indie film. In saying this, I do not mean to minimize the matter. Lawrence plays Lynsey, a member of the United States Army Corps of Engineers who returns from Afghanistan after traveling in a vehicle that was hit by a bomb, causing her to have a brain hemorrhage. At first she is sitting in a wheelchair, waiting for the home health worker (Jayne Houdyshell) who will take care of her while she is in rehab. Lynsey shyly starts walking, but for a while she has trouble bathing, driving, remembering things. Her brain injury shattered and weakened her; she is a fragmented person.
Director Lila Neugebauer creates a mood of desperate reticence, framing Lynsey in scenes where she doesn’t do or say much, because she can’t. However, after a short time she begins to recover. She gets stronger, she has color in her face again, and the film lets us know that her brain, even when exhausted, is functioning well. However, her mood persists. (“Causeway” is set in Lynsey’s hometown of New Orleans, and after arriving at her mother’s home to continue her healing, she is resting in her bedroom when her mother, Gloria (Linda Emond), walks in and sees her. on the doorstep. first time. They talk about why she was there a few days ago. And that’s the whole conversation. Not a single “And how do you feel?” Gloria is a monstrous and insensitive mother? that we know her, she seems to be sufficiently attentive to her daughter’s well-being, so why shouldn’t she ask her how she is?
Because that would break the monosyllabic spell of the depressed. There is a certain type of independent cinema that continues to reflect the “Tender Mercies” model, showing us characters expressing their trauma by choosing not to express it, as if it made them explode. That mood – of pain suspended in the air, of unspoken despair – creates a kind of artistic atmosphere of authenticity. Neugebauer, who is shooting his first feature film, does it well; he has the instinct of a true director. However, “Causeway” is a redemptive drama that is both heartbreaking and a bit daunting. Just because your characters are in pain doesn’t mean they have to stop talking for the most part.
Jennifer Lawrence, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner at the premiere of “The Hunger Games”
Jennifer Lawrence thinks Miley Cyrus has a bad influence
Returning to his indie roots, Lawrence stars in a film that will likely make people think “Winter’s Bone” (the 2010 drama that put her on the map), and delivers a strong, raw and understated performance that is unassuming. . He makes Lynsey vulnerable and rather impassive; we continue to study her naked face for clues as to what is going on inside her. Lynsey gets a job as a pool cleaner, but she longs to return to the theater of war. From the moment she visits her neurologist, played by the ever-excellent Stephen McKinley Henderson, she talks to her about her desire to be recast. She wasn’t in combat (she was a plumbing engineer), but this strikes everyone she knows, and even the public, as a terrible idea, given everything she’s been through. Is he tough, stubborn, or is he trying to run away from something?
Stopping in a garage after her family’s truck breaks down, Lynsey meets James, a relaxed mechanic, who chats with her for a while, then offers to give her a lift. They converse a little more, which is encouraging in a film that doesn’t value the conversation. James, played by Brian Tyree Henry with a scruffy spontaneity, is a comforting man with his own problems (he’s had a bad car accident), and these two like to hang out. It looks like it could be a love story, until he represses any thoughts in that direction – for James and the audience – by revealing that he’s gay. They become friends, but the dialogue, by co-writers Luke Goebel, Ottessa Moshfegh and Elizabeth Sanders, remains minimalist. The two share some important confessions, but they never sit down and talk about … things. Any frivolity would dilute the despondency.
Some might think I’m complaining, but “Causeway” tracks the healing of a soul, takes its time to do it, and allows great actors like Lawrence and Henry to vibrate together, so what’s the deal? Eventually, the film takes you to a place that feels real. But we have to go through a fairly barren desolation area to get there. This has been a hallmark of independent cinema, but it is one that fewer and fewer viewers will want to experience.
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