Where the Crawdads Sing: Film Review
When I heard that Delia Owens‘ bestselling novel Where the Crawdads Sing was being adapted into a film, I wondered how it was going to work because the book didn’t seem super cinematic to me (in this day and age). My concern was correct and the film is probably too slow and meandering to draw in the crowds.
The film begins in Barkley Cove, North Carolina in 1969 following the death of a young man named Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson). He could have accidentally fallen to his death from the fire tower all by himself but the local prosecutors insist “the Marsh Girl” – real name Kya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones) – must have pushed him off, despite having virtually no evidence to back up their claims. Over the course of the trial, where Kya is represented by lawyer Tom Milton (David Straithairn), we learn about her upbringing on the marsh.
They don’t really make these character-driven dramas for cinemas these days – this would have been perfect about 10-20 years ago when the Nicholas Sparks film adaptations had their heyday. But nowadays, this type of film goes straight to streaming or gets made into a miniseries. So I don’t know who will see this film outside of fans of the book (although it did sell 12 million copies so perhaps that’ll convert into cinema tickets). I think the large majority of people will find this boring, slow and too long because it takes ages to get going and it’s basically just Kya’s life story with courtroom drama, romance and dark, thrilling moments thrown in.
I liked how Lucy Alibar structured the film as the events play out in a more interesting way than the straightforward linear narrative of the book. She also streamlined the story a fair bit but it is still very loyal to the novel and that’s sometimes to its detriment. The issues I had with the book exist within the movie too, particularly the ending
The character of Kya has been given a Hollywood makeover. Given that she has lived alone in a shack in the marshes with no running water or electricity since she was a child, I visualised her as emaciated, unhealthy, dirty and a bit rough and feral-looking when I read the book. Yet, in this adaptation, Kya is pretty, polished, with glossy brushed hair and surprisingly decent clothes. No “Marsh Girl” would really look like that.
But I don’t want to hold that against Edgar-Jones because I think she does a fantastic job. The wide-eyed vulnerability she showed in Normal People is present, alongside Kya’s inner strength and resilience and deep yearning for company. Straithairn has a kind, gentle presence as Milton, Taylor John Smith was a pleasant surprise as Kya’s love interest Tate and Dickinson played the volatile douchebag as Chase. I also want to give a shout-out to Sterling Macer Jr. and Michael Hyatt for giving their characters Jumpin’ and Mabel – effectively Kya’s surrogate parents – so much warmth and heart.
Where the Crawdads Sing is a bit too meandering and tonally all over the place to really work. It just doesn’t know what type of film it wants to be. But despite all that, the emotion of the story crept up on me and I found myself having a little cry at the end! So perhaps it was more effective than I realised. I hope it does well as I want these character-driven dramas to have a cinema comeback but I don’t feel too optimistic.
In cinemas from Friday 22nd July