Causeway
Apple TV+ | Release Date: October 28, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
TheWrapSteve PondJan 6, 2023
Neugebauer, Lawrence and Henry deliver an unhurried gem that might feel slight but always feels right. Read full review
90
We Got This CoveredMartin CarrNov 7, 2022
Understated but no less powerful for it, Causeway will remind audience what Oscar winning actors can do. Read full review
88
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 1, 2022
A small, wonderfully minimalist film that nonetheless packs an emotional wallop while delivering a beautifully heartbreaking portrait of the power of human connection. Read full review
83
ConsequenceMary SirokyNov 3, 2022
While one of the few downsides of Causeway is the lingering desire to spend more time with these characters, the film holds an excellent return to form for Jennifer Lawrence and makes a stellar case for many more leading man roles for Brian Tyree Henry. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeNov 8, 2022
Lawrence is phenomenal, giving the kind of wary, reined-in performance that made such a compelling impression in her breakthrough film, Winter’s Bone. And the always excellent Henry gradually strips back a character who at first seems wholly at ease with life to reveal layers of suppressed guilt and pain. Read full review
80
The IndependentAdam WhiteNov 3, 2022
Causeway has two incredibly gifted performers at its centre, and knows they’re who you want to see. Read full review
80
Time OutAnna SmithOct 31, 2022
By leaning into those relatable complexities, Causeway will offer plenty for fans of thoughtful, quality dramas that touch on humanity, trauma, connection and the kindness of strangers. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 14, 2022
Causeway is an excellent, moving, determinedly low-key slice of US indie cinema. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJenny NulfNov 2, 2022
Causeway is at its most successful when the film is patient, giving the space to have its characters ruminate over how their past experiences don’t have to define their futures. It’s the kind of film that only succeeds with incredible performances to back it up, and Neugebauer achieves that with Lawrence and Henry guiding her film in such a touching, beautiful way. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireNov 4, 2022
Causeway ultimately may be a little too languid, too restrained, but there’s catharsis to be found in its quiet moments and fine-tuned performances. Read full review
75
Original-CinJim SlotekNov 3, 2022
In its rambling pace, Causeway at times is reminiscent of Winter’s Bone, the 2010 movie that introduced Lawrence to film fans, and may still be her finest performance. In Causeway, the doctors aren’t the only ones wondering what’s going on inside her head. The audience does too, and she reveals it as slowly as she needs to. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonNov 3, 2022
Any metaphoric meaning is left up to the viewer, who will be too busy basking in the fine performances to give it much thought. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 2, 2022
Sometimes the choices a film eschews are as valuable as the choices the film makes. In the case of Causeway, the result is a thoughtful and realistic slice of life that is set in present times but has the distinct vibe of indie films from a generation or two ago. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenNov 2, 2022
Henry’s performance is delicately nuanced. His character is by turns cheerful, ruminative, anguished. His performance and Lawrence’s are complementary. They play off each other well. Read full review
75
The Associated PressMark KennedyNov 1, 2022
Causeway, directed by Lila Neugebauer with a straightforward honesty, sounds more manipulative and manufactured than it is. At its best, it’s a quietly affective portrait of unlikely friends hoping they can help each other make it to the shore. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJosh WiseOct 12, 2022
It’s to Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry’s credit that what lingers is their characters’ uncertainty. Read full review
75
ColliderRoss BonaimeSep 14, 2022
Like the relationship between Lynsey and James, Causeway is a film that slowly grows on you, a film that puts on a tough front—with its devastated characters and desire for escape—yet at its center is a tremendous about of heart, love, with its found families and shared pain. Read full review
75
The PlaylistCharles BramescoSep 14, 2022
The double character piece excels most when Neugebauer does her thing and facilitates her actors. Together, they build a pair of utterly real people, nonetheless confined to a dramatic universe more prone to contrivance. But the pleasures of the former generally outweigh the irksomeness of the latter, with Lawrence and costar Brian Tyree Henry joined in as a super-generator of onscreen magnetism. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattSep 14, 2022
It's nice to see actors like these do such subtle, sympathetic work for a gifted young director — and to find an outlet for storytelling that doesn't demand neat redemption, but still allows for grace. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganJan 6, 2023
The unfolding of this unusual friendship, however, and Henry’s lively performance against Lawrence and their resulting rapport, make it a sound prospect to spend some quiet time with. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganNov 7, 2022
While Lawrence and Henry imbue each scene they share with oscillating doses of humor and melancholy, the final product feels somewhat strained and stunted, particularly in its investigation into the hellish reality of actively trying to heal. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearNov 2, 2022
There is no all-caps ACTING here. Instead, Lawrence dials in to an uncomfortable numbness that tamps everything about Lynsey down, and thus keeps the performance at a recognizably human, rather than headline-friendly social-drama level. Read full review
70
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiSep 26, 2022
Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry are excellent together. They have great chemistry and their conversations and jabs at each other feel natural. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreSep 14, 2022
Lawrence and Henry have a warm, natural chemistry, and that rapport really seems to guide where the movie ends up, instead of the other way around. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 14, 2022
It’s a small-scale film that many might call unambitious, favoring delicate observation over big emotional payoff. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 14, 2022
This could all feel schematic in lesser hands, but Neugebauer gives Lawrence and Henry the space they need to make the film’s characters feel like real people. As a result, the inevitable glimmer of hope they share at the end is as honest as the hurt that guided them to it. Read full review
65
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaNov 4, 2022
Watching Lawrence and Henry act off each other is what really makes "Causeway" worth watching. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 9, 2022
Causeway is slight but immersive, warm with the occasional chill and engaging in ways two very good actors can manage with just the barest bones of a story and a scattering of secrets to give away, one pained revelation at a time. Read full review
60
Vanity FairRichard LawsonNov 9, 2022
There is a fine line between creating a laconic, closed-off character and simply not creating a character at all—a line that Causeway transgresses. Lynsey is a frustrating cipher, seemingly guided more by the beats of the script than by any internal impulse or logic. Read full review
60
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaNov 4, 2022
An otherwise plain film about an unlikely friendship between a returned soldier and a mechanic, Causeway is worth watching for Jennifer Lawrence’s best performance in years. Read full review
60
EmpireJohn NugentOct 31, 2022
Solid, but understated to a fault. Causeway’s biggest appeal is seeing Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry act up a quiet, powerful storm. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshOct 27, 2022
Henry is such an earthy, captivating presence that he holds the center of gravity in Causeway — when he’s not on screen, the film drifts, rudderless, as Lynsey does. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 14, 2022
Causeway is a drama of redemption that’s both touching and a little arduous. Just because your characters are suffering doesn’t mean they have to mostly stop talking. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMartin TsaiNov 2, 2022
Other than the pair of outstanding lead performances, there really isn’t much cause to watch it. Read full review
58
The Film StageC.J. PrinceSep 14, 2022
It’s lucky that Neugebauer has such strong talent to elevate what she’s working with, as it helps rescue Causeway from a forgettable collection of indie-drama cliches into something more respectable. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedDec 5, 2022
Causeway is a disappointment, but the thing you take home is Jennifer Lawrence’s nuanced performance as she shows every shifting emotion and contrast in the life of a woman soldier searching for definition who doesn’t feel at ease in either world—war or peace. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 3, 2022
Causeway is both thin and heavy-handed, its plot overly diagramed and its characters inadequately fleshed out. The burden of making it credible falls disproportionately on Henry and Lawrence, superb actors who do what they can to bring the script’s static and fuzzy ideas about pain, alienation and the need for connection to something that almost resembles life. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 14, 2022
Everything about this film means well and it is acted with professionalism and commitment. But there is something too easy about it. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 1, 2022
The experience of seeing Causeway isn’t what you’d imagine while trying to decide whether to watch a 92-minute movie about a veteran’s slow recovery. It feels more like moving in with her — invisible — for weeks, and watching as she makes a sandwich or stares into space. That isn’t drama. That’s practically audience abuse. Read full review
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