Causeway (2022)

Directed by Lila Neugebauer. Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Brian Tyree Henry, Linda Emond, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jayne Houdyshell, Fred Weller. [R]

After suffering a brain injury in Afghanistan, soldier Lawrence returns to her New Orleans home for recovery. She takes a job cleaning swimming pools and befriends an amputee mechanic (Henry), but is eager to be cleared to return to service. Story of depression, guilt, and shared trauma, both physical and psychological, is insubstantial even by the standards of quiet character-based dramas, getting off to a shaky start and ending with the sort of ellipsis that makes it seem like about twenty minutes are missing at the end (the general curve of the two character arcs were certainly aiming for a more distant endpoint). Well-acted and capably-directed by newcomer Neugebauer, although she could have used a little more restraint when it came to the metaphors and a little more creativity when it came to camera set-ups and visual schemes. Shooting began in 2019, but Hurricane Barry and the COVID pandemic delayed completion for two years. Lawrence also co-produced.

59/100