‘Causeway’ Toronto Review: Jennifer Lawrence And Brian Tyree Henry In Tender Drama Of The Effects Of Trauma

deadline.com:

Taking tentative steps back into living, but actually longing to get well enough to take up another tour, she gets a job as a pool cleaner much to her mother’s dismay.

It is something simplistic enough that she can handle it, or at least believes so, but when her truck gives out on her she takes it to a auto repair where she meets a mechanic named James (Brian Tyree Henry), with whom she somehow forges an unlikely friendship, one that both take to awkward levels after being casual new friends, both in their own tentative ways exploring the possibilities beyond.

Their connection as it turns out is the shared physical and psychological recovery process from a life-changing accident, in James’ case involving a car and the death of his nephew, and the loss of a leg.

In a poignant and beautifully underplayed scene the details of his own trauma come to light as they sit by a pool she is taking care of.