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GETTING FIXED (CAUSEWAY)

© Apple TV+

In the past, Lila Neugebauer's drama 'Causeway' might have caused more ripples during awards season.

Yet somehow the Apple TV+ film hasn't quite had the impact that it should have.

Yes, Brian Tyree Henry has picked up a few Best Supporting Actor commendations from film critics associations and a Critics Choice nomination.

But apart from that, there has been no Golden Globe recognition for him or his co-star Jennifer Lawrence, no BAFTA nod, no Screen Actors Guild nomination.

© Apple TV+

You would have thought both deliver the sort of performances that awards voters would lap up.

However it just hasn't happened which is very odd.

Neugebauer's film stars Jennifer Lawrence, who delivers her best performance since 'Joy,' as a US soldier recovering from a brain trauma injury caused by an IED in Afghanistan.

Arriving in a halfway house run by Jayne Houdyshell's carer Sharon as part of her rehabilitation, Lawrence's Lynsey is initially confined to a wheelchair.

© Apple TV+

When we first see her she needs help dressing herself, going to the toilet and has to learn again how to write.

Eventually Lynsey is able to walk and drive but it is not a full recovery.

She still suffers from severe trauma.

Returning to her family home in New Orleans, Lynsey is ambivalent about living again with her mum, Linda Emond's hard drinking Gloria.

© Apple TV+

She prefers to stay out of her mum's way and lands a job cleaning outdoor swimming pools in people's homes.

However Lynsey is determined to return to the Army.

While heading out on her first job for her boss Fred Weller's Rick, Lynsey's pick up truck breaks down.

She manages to get it to a mechanic's where Brian Tyree Henry's James Aucuin works.

© Apple TV+

Impressed by her vehicle, James diagnoses engine trouble and says he will have to order a part in for her to fix it.

Setting off on foot from the garage, Lynsey is stopped not long afterwards by James who offers her a lift in her car.

A friendship soon develops, with James and Lynsey hanging out, going out for food and also drinks.

They are a good mix but it soon becomes clear that James has his own trauma and physical and emotional scars to deal with.

© Apple TV+

As James and Lynsey wrestle with their demons, will it stunt the development of a friendship or will it somehow blossom?

With Lynsey eager to get back to active military service, will her efforts to persuade Stephen McKinley Henderson's neurologist Dr Lucas that she is ready to go back succeed?

And how will those around her, including James, feel about her desire to get out of New Orleans?

Working from a script by Ottessa Moshfegh, Luke Goebel and Elizabeth Sanders, Neugebauer pulls together a sensitive, yet oddly robust drama that examines the lingering effects of trauma.

© Apple TV+

Lawrence and Henry are handed rich roles and it would be very easy for them to deliver over the top, Oscar hungry performances.

However their portrayal of damaged souls are wonderfully controlled.

As a result, when the fireworks do eventually fly between both characters in this otherwise subdued film, they really hit home with force. 

Lynsey and James are two bruised souls tiptoeing around each other and around everyone else in their orbit.

© Apple TV+

Both actors are complemented by Neugebauer's subtle direction, Diego Garcia's unobtrusive cinematography and Robert Frazen and Lucien Johnston's gently paced editing.

Neugebauer and Garcia make good use of their New Orleans locations - avoiding all the usual clichés. 

As the for the rest of the cast, Emond, Houdyshell, Weller, McKinley Henderson and Russell Harvard as Lynsey's incarcerated brother Justin all make significant contributions to a movie which also boasts a subtle score by composer Alex Somers.

'Causeway' is so well made, so well written and so well acted, you can't help but wonder why it hasn't attracted the same kind of buzz that Apple TV+'s Best Picture Oscar winner 'CODA'.

© Apple TV+

It is by every measure that film's equal.

Yet lesser films are making a much bigger splash during awards season and that is a crying shame.

Neugebauer's movie deserves much, much better.

('Causeway' received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022, secured a US cinema release on October 28, 2022 and was made available for streaming on Apple TV+ on November 4, 2022)

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