Review: 'Causeway' is a small, intense drama that features Jennifer Lawrence at her steely, vulnerable best

The small, intense drama “Causeway” shows a Jennifer Lawrence who’s somewhat familiar to us: Tough-minded and determined, but with a vulnerability just below the surface.

What’s new is that Lawrence is charting her own course, by producing for the first time — and she uses that new clout to give us a story that’s simple in execution but complex in its emotions.

When we meet Lynsey, Lawrence’s character, we’re not immediately told what’s going on. She’s dealing with some health issues, enrolled in physical therapy, and trying to overcome some cognitive issues that have her staying — for awhile, anyway — with Sharon (Jane Houdyshell), a home-care nurse.

Some time passes, and Lynsey’s time under Sharon’s care ends, and Lynsey takes a bus home to New Orleans. Thanks to her doctor (Stephen McKinley Henderson), we learn that Lynsey was in Afghanistan, a member of the Army Corps of Engineers, and suffered a traumatic brain injury when her convoy was attacked. Even so, she’s eager to show her doctor she’s OK, and ready to return to duty.

Going home, we soon find, has its own forms of trauma. She sees her mom, Gloria (Linda Emond), who’s still the hard-drinking woman Lynsey knew before she enlisted. To avoid Mom, Lynsey takes a job cleaning pools. She also takes the family’s ancient pick-up truck into a mechanic — which is how she befriends James (Bryan Tyree Henry), who owns the garage, and has some demons of his own to deal with.

The script — credited to three writers: Ottessa Moshfegh, Luke Goebel and Elizabeth Sanders — feels like a stage play, almost entirely small and contained scenes with Lynsey and one other character, whether it’s Gloria, James, Sharon or her doctor. Director Lila Neugebauer, a TV director making her feature debut, doesn’t feel the need to “expand” the story to fit the movie screen (maybe because it’s debuting on Apple TV+), and keeps the emotion at a human scale.

The emotion is sharp, though, because of the talented cast, including Russell Harvard in a role that I can’t divulge. The standouts are Lawrence, who’s never been better, and Henry, who brings a laid-back soulfulness that makes James’ story all the more powerful. They make “Causeway” a small gem worth finding.

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‘Causeway’

★★★

Starts streaming Friday, November 4, on Apple TV+. Rated R for some language, sexual references and drug use. Running time: 92 minutes.