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Woman in St. Charles t-shirt - Causeway

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Paul Asay

Movie Review

For Lynsey, there’s nothing easy ’bout the Big Easy. Nothing at all. Never has been.

Even though she was born and raised in New Orleans, she left as soon as she could. For her, the Army felt more family than family. Even Afghanistan felt more like home than home.

But then Lynsey’s truck was blown up by an IED, sending her right back to New Orleans. Physically, she looks just fine: No visible wounds, no twisted limbs. But her brain and her body are still getting re-acquainted. And mentally? Emotionally? She’s a mess.

Take the time her mom’s ratty old truck started smoking on a quick spin ’round the neighborhood. Lynsey panicked. Swerved. Whipped a U-turn and then some right in the middle of an intersection, other motorists hollering as they dodged. Finally, she rolled up on the grass, slammed her hands down on the steering wheel and had a meltdown right there.

Lynsey gathered herself eventually; she and the truck limped down to a local auto repair shop. The mechanic, a guy named James, admired the ancient vehicle and told her it’d just cost a few hundred bucks to get’ er humming again.

Lynsey hesitated. “I don’t know if I want to even fix it,” she says. “It’s not even mine.”

So James told her he’d take a look at it and just give her a call on her cell when he knew more.

“I don’t know my number,” Lynsey said.

James paused.

“How ’bout this,” he said. “You call me, and your number will show up.” He promised it’s not a pass at her. He just wanted to help.

There aren’t many people in Lynsey’s life who just want to help. Not many at all. But having a friend in New Orleans? An honest-to-goodness someone who’ll come when you call, who’ll open the door when you knock?

That just might make her recovery in the Big Easy just a little bit easier.

Positive Elements

James and Lynsey were both raised in New Orleans, and their first conversation is about where they went to high school. Perhaps it’s fitting that Causeway seems to revolve around the three Rs of inspirational cinema: regrets, recovery and redemption.

Lynsey is in the process of mental and emotional recovery. She’s come a long way already (when the movie opens, she can’t even take off her sweater), but she’s got some distance to go yet. That’s frustrating for her, because she wants to get back in action—and out of New Orleans—as soon as she can.

Thankfully, she’s got some helpers that guide her in ways that she might resent in the moment, but ways that are ultimately good for her.

When she first returns to the States, the Army puts her in the care of Sharon, a conscientious nurse who helps her through those first grueling stages of recovery: learning how to walk again, how to drive, how to handle the nightmares. Once Lynsey returns to New Orleans, she’s put under the care of Dr. Lucas. When she pressures him to clear her for a return to duty, the doctor insists on pumping the brakes.

Can you go back?” he asks rhetorically late in the process. “Yes. Should you go back? That’s a different question.”

Lynsey’s biggest support turns out to be James, who becomes the strong, reliable friend that Lynsey needs so much. But James is dealing with his own trauma. Some of it’s obvious: He’s missing a part of a leg, due to a traffic accident on the Causeway (a nearly 24-mile-long bridge over Lake Pontchartrain outside New Orleans). But the loss of the leg is minor compared to other losses he’s suffered.

With each other’s help, Lynsey and James slowly, jerkily (in both senses of the word “jerk”) and painfully move toward healing. And Lynsey especially finds that she’s got plenty of room to grow—and takes steps to do just that.

Spiritual Elements

There’s very little obvious faith content aside from a cross necklace hanging from the rearview mirror of James’ car.

But symbolically, it may be a different story.

Lynsey works as a pool cleaner around New Orleans, and most of the movie’s most critical scenes involve water. Early on, Lynsey rarely dips her toes in these chlorinated pools. But as she heals, she slips into the water more and more, finally encouraging James to join her.

Water, of course, is a potent symbol in Christianity—a symbol of death and rebirth. And while neither Lynsey nor James undergo a Christian baptism, the water seems to represent a sense of new life and beginning again for both of them.

Sexual Content

Speaking of water, we see Lynsey in water plenty—but only once with a formal swimming suit. Most of the time she simply strips out of her clothes and steps in wearing just her bra and panties. She shivers in a bathtub in her underwear once. And early on, we see part of her in a shower, naked, as Sharon gives her a sponge bath. (We see her from the side and back. But outside a sliver of her rear, nothing critical is shown.) James also gets into a pool wearing just his underwear.

When a man at a bar tries to buy Lynsey a beer, James fends the fellow off, calling Lynsey “my girl.” James apologizes later, telling her he didn’t mean anything by it. Lynsey quickly sets him straight regarding the possibilities of anything ever happening between them: “I don’t have boyfriends,” she says. “I have girlfriends. I mean, not right now, but if I did, that’s what I’d have.”  [Spoiler Warning] Both of them are rather surprised, then, when Lynsey plants a fairly passionate smooch on him.

We hear that James used to live with a woman and her son.

Violent Content

We don’t really see violence of any kind in Causeway, unless you count Lynsey nearly falling during physical therapy as “violence.” (She also causes considerable panic while driving, as mentioned in the introduction.)

We do hear graphic descriptions of how both Lynsey and James were injured. Lynsey is forced to tell her tale to Dr. Lucas. She describes to him how her vehicle exploded, how those who tried to escape were shot and how the man beside her was “on fire,” probably the moment that causes her the most nightmares.

James tells Lynsey about his accident on the causeway, how he woke up in the wreckage and how his leg was so mangled that “the soul of the shoe is looking right back at me.”  He says he then heard the car’s other passengers: “People screaming outside the car. Not inside.”

Crude or Profane Language

About 15 f-words and nearly a dozen s-words. We also hear “a–,” “d–n,” “h—,” “g-dd–n” and “t-ts.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Lynsey is on a bevy of medications throughout the movie. Sharon rattles off her prescriptions before Lynsey zips back to New Orleans: “Ativan, Depakote, Cymbalta, Vicodin. The rehab’s not over.” Once in New Orleans, Lynsey asks Dr. Lucas what would happen if she stopped taking her medication. He tells her that she’d be at “high risk of seizure, anxiety, withdrawal and depression.” And when Lynsey says she feels just fine, Lucas asks her, “Is it possible you feel fine because of the Cymbalta?”

We see the soldier take those pills from time to time; Lynsey initially steers clear of alcohol because of all the medication she’s on. (When James asks what type of medication, she says, “Like, ‘don’t shoot yourself in the head’ medication.”) But before the evening’s out, she drinks beer and smokes her first marijuana blunt. James is surprised she’s never smoked it before. Lynsey explains, “My brother did enough drugs for the both of us. Crack, meth, household detergent.”

Soon, the two of them are getting together to drink beer and get high. The morning after one late-night meeting—at somebody else’s pool—Lynsey gathers up what appear to be about a dozen beer bottles from the site. Another morning, Lynsey drives a nearly passed-out James home.

Lynsey’s irresponsible mom, Gloria, also drinks. She and Lynsey sip what appear to be margaritas in a wading pool: Gloria leaves to get a “refill.” Elsewhere, she confesses to Lynsey that she “needs a drink.” Both James and Lynsey smoke cigarettes. Dr. Lucas tells Lynsey that just as smoking is linked to lung cancer, so “extreme trauma is linked to PTSD and depression. In fact, the link is stronger.”

[Spoiler Warning] We learn that James had had a “couple of beers” before his Causeway accident. Lynsey’s brother is in prison due to his drug use—and he’s glad of it. “I’m safe here,” he says. “Out there, I don’t trust myself.”

Other Negative Elements

Lynsey rushes out of her mother’s house to vomit. We hear her retching in another scene. Elsewhere she sits on a toilet, Sharon on hand to help her clean up. We hear about improper use of a car seat. Lynsey and James swim in other people’s pools.

Conclusion

Trauma is tricky. Sometimes it’s obvious to all, like James’ missing leg. But other times, we can look at someone and assume they’re just fine. It’s only when we get to know them that we realize anything is wrong. It’s only then that we know how to help.

Causeway tackles trauma, both obvious and hidden. And it points to the things that can help heal it: conscientious professionals. Judicious use of medication. Above all, connection. Friendship. Lynsey would be lost without a little help from her friend. And her doctor. And her meds.

But Causeway takes some curious left turns on the way to healing, too.

Yes, sometimes you need medication to help deal with pain and balance your brain. But Dr. Lucas would be furious if he knew that Lynsey was mixing said meds with alcohol, and apoplectic perhaps if he knew marijuana was in the stew, too. The movie almost suggests that, since getting high and drunk can be a way some people bond, it is thus an instrumental step toward healing.

The language and Lynsey’s sexuality will be issues for many viewers as well. But it’s the use and especially, misuse of substances that struck me most. Given that the rest of Lynsey’s family seems to struggle so much with both drugs and alcohol makes it all the stranger—and less excusable—that the film seems to give Lynsey’s own use a pass. Indeed, the film almost seems to raise its own glass in toast.

Causeway tackles serious issues with thought and sensitivity. But just as Lynsey has some blind spots to her own weaknesses, so, it seems, does the movie.

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Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.