Where the Crawdads Sing

Beauty in words. Beauty in images. Beauty in music. Beauty in a performance. Beauty in an actress.

Where the Crawdads Sing is a well-made movie with a story and a character that keep you heavily invested. The romance aspect really works, and this is coming from a guy who doesn't normally go for romance. Pulling on your heart-strings is an understatement.

I wasn't planning on watching this movie but I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed it and would watch it again. (1 viewing, opening Friday 7/15/2022)

Read the book. Loved it. This is not one of those reviews that says movie ruined the book. It is different in the book tho. Daisy Edgar Jones is a great actress and does nothing wrong here but is totally unlike the vision of Kya in my head. The best thing about the movie is the cinematography. With no sound this movie would be lush. The dialogue is clunky though, a lot of the supporting actors wooden particularly the love interests. The courtroom scenes are predictable. David Straitharn is great as a cut price Atticus Finch. The middle section of the movie lags and feels like a Hallmark movie , however by the end I was sucked in and left the cinema smiling.

Plot synopsis without spoilers is basically a young girl fending for herself in the marshlands is charged with murder.

Better than the mainstream reviews suggest.

To start, I have not read the book (although I enjoyed the film so much, I plan to now), my review will be based on the film with no context of the source material.

I enjoyed this film tremendously. It was heartfelt and romantic...I will say that the storyteller may be slightly manipulative as they spent the whole film building your sympathy only to present a rather horrific reality.

The overall story is about a young girl, Kya Clark, who is raised by an abusive father in the marshlands of South Carolina and whose mother and siblings abandon her. Eventually her father abandons her as well and she is left to fend for herself in the marsh at a very young age. This solitary marsh existence brings rise to rumors amongst the local townspeople which works against her when a body is found in the marsh and she is accused of murder.

There is a beautiful love story built between Tate and Kya. Tate teachers Kya to read and supports her love of nature and nature drawings...but as all good things, he goes to college leaving her with a list of publishers who might be interested in her drawings. Heartbroken over Tate leaving her, she meets the duplicitous Chase.

Her family has abandoned her, the town reviles her...there is very little kindness in Kya's world. There seem to be only three people who are truly kind to her...Mabel and Jumpin' who run the local general store and buy mussels off of Kya and thankfully Tom Milton a local lawyer.

When Kya is accused of murder, Tom Milton does an amazing job defending her...especially considering she seems very reluctant to help herself.

There is a surprise ending as well as something fairly sinister beyond the obvious...that leave the movie goer with an interesting taste in their mouth. As a romantic, I loved the romantic storyline and was willing to put up with things like...not having to worry or think about birth-control?!?!? But the true ending left a cloud of sadness for me.

I highly recommend the film...it's a wonderful story and the moral crisis is my own. The marsh was a thing of beauty and the rendered nature sketches were gorgeous in this romanticized film. As mentioned, I enjoyed the story enough that I am going to be seeking out the book to read.

What would you do, if those you love deserted you, left you lost and all alone, within a swampland overgrow; only parent who can nurture, takes the name of mother nature, raises you with all the senses, that you need to form defences; as you grow you start to flower, just don't realise your power, attracting those that make you sing, attracting those that wound and sting; then you're captured in a web, of prejudice, a tidal ebb, stranded, beached, marooned and grounded, the ending may leave you confounded.

Daisy Edgar-Jones is brilliant, and gives one of her best performances to date as the marshland Mowgli Kya Clark.

Without reading the book you will probably enjoy what this film has to offer. Read the book and you will find that this film could have offered so much more.

The film skims only the surface of what Kya and her Marsh have to offer. The depths remain untouched, unexplored.

Kya's story is told but not felt. Her loneliness, her isolation, her survival. Her profound connection to the nature that surrounds her.

I didn't want to be disappointed. I was looking forward to the story being brought to life. I thought Kya was cast well. The images of the Marsh were beautiful. But something was missing. I didn't just want to see. I wanted to feel too.