The first thing I saw Jennifer Lawrence in was the indie picture Winter’s Bone. It’s nice to see after having become an A-lister in big budget movies, she went back to one with director Lila Neugabauer’s first film. It’s an understated, subtle film that in its quiet moments, lets the actors naturally become these characters and makes it feel more realistic. For example, three scenes come to mind, that in lesser hands would have been ruined. One scene involves a drunk guy at a bar trying to pick up Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence) while she’s hanging out with a new friend. It doesn’t become a fist fight, no racial slurs are thrown out. Another is more a series of scenes. There’s not one big blow up with her mom (Linda Emond) but a number of small moments where she lets her daughter down. The other are the scenes with great character actor Stephen Henderson, as the doctor that has reservations about Lynsey wanting to go back into service after her brain injury and PTSD. All very subtle and perfectly done for my taste.
Lynsey gets a job cleaning pools and becomes friends with mechanic James (Brian Tyree Henry, who was one of the few things I liked about Bullet Train). There are such tender moments as we watch the growing friendship of two damaged people (literally and figuratively).
I found it refreshing to not have flashbacks showing the injury occurring in Iraq. It wasn’t necessary, and I was much more interested in the traumas she suffered from her home life in New Orleans. Which also means I got to hear some great songs from New Orleans artists, like “Blue Monday” by Fats Domino and Ernie K-Doe’s “Mother-In-Law” (although they fib about a fact about the singer in the film).
Now, some might not like the pacing. And I’ll be the first to admit, there’s not much of a plot. But after this hour and a half movie ended, I wanted to spend another two hours with them. I didn’t care if it were merely watching them eat snow cones or swim in a customer’s pool.
That doesn’t mean the movie doesn’t have a few missteps, and gets a bit maudlin at times.
This is basically a two-hander, and the two had great chemistry together. My wife and I both loved it.
4 stars out of 5.