What’s it rated? R
When? 2022
Where’s it showing? Apple TV Plus
Lila Neugebauer directs this drama about two damaged people getting through life the best they can. Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence) is a soldier recovering from a traumatic brain injury she sustained in Afghanistan. She meets James (Brian Tyree Henry), an auto mechanic who’s struggling to live with the fallout of a tragic car accident.
A quiet film with big performances, this slow-burning, subdued treatise on the lingering effects of trauma examines all the ways we avoid, rationalize, and ignore the emotional pain of past events. Lynsey, now stuck at home with a mother (Linda Emond) she resents, longs to go back in service, though her doctor (Stephen McKinley Henderson) believes it’s a mistake. James has demons and secrets of his own, and as he and Lynsey form a friendship, we learn more about their difficult pasts.
The acting carries the film. This is the kind of raw, understated performance that proved Lawrence’s early star power (think The Poker House 2008 and Winter’s Bone 2010). Her Lynsey is all internal: Subtle body language communicates her frustration at having to relearn body mechanics. Henry’s James senses in Lynsey a kindred spirit, and his deep kindness may be exactly what she needs to find who she needs to be. Poignant, melancholy, and deeply satisfying. (92 min.) Ī
This article appears in Dec 1-11, 2022.