Jennifer Lawrence's New Movie is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes

After a bit of a break from acting following X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence returned to the big screen with Netflix's Don't Look Up last year. Now Lawrence has released her next major project, the A24 and Apple TV+ produced Causeway. Having had its world premiere at TIFF back in September, the new film has officially arrived on Apple's streaming service and its Rotten Tomatoes score is nothing to scoff at. Today the review aggregator has also confirmed that the new movie is officially "Certified Fresh" with an 84% approval rating from critics. 

Directed by Lila Neugebauer, Causeway stars Lawrence as Lynsey, a soldier struggling to adjust back home in New Orleans following a traumatic injury. When she meets local mechanic (Brian Tyree Henry), the pair begin to forge an unexpected bond. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus for the film praises the two leads of the film, reading: "Causeway takes a powerfully subdued look at the lingering effects of trauma, led by gripping performances from Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry."

Giving the film a "B" rating, Entertainment Weekly writes that: "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." IndieWire writes that "Neugebauer gives Lawrence and Henry the space they need to make the film's characters feel like real people," ultimately giving it a B-. Though only awarding the film a 6 out of 10, IGN said that the movie features Lawrence's "most powerful, nuanced, and physically committed work in years."

Not everyone was so kind however, with The New York Times calling the film "both thin and heavy-handed, its plot overly diagramed and its characters inadequately fleshed out;" The Guardian gave the movie a 2 out of 5, noting that "Everything about this film means well and it is acted with professionalism and commitment. But there is something too easy about it."

"I obviously cannot relate to risking my life for my country," Lawrence told The New York Times in a profile interview, "but I can understand, reading 'Causeway,' why I'm getting so emotional about somebody who doesn't feel like they belong anywhere unless they're on a schedule....I feel really lucky to be able to have a job where I can actually take certain scars and turn them into something that's tremendously healing."