Worth: $10.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Daisy Edgar Jones, Taylor John Smith, David Strathairn, Sterling Macer Jr., Michael Hyatt, Ahna O’Reilly, Harris Dickinson, Garret Dillahunt, Jojo Regina
Intro:
… an exercise in taking women-led stories backwards and feels like a Hallmark film with a decent budget and an A-list cast.
Adapted from Delia Owens’ phenomenally successful 2018 novel, Where the Crawdads Sing is a mawkish melodrama that rarely manages to negotiate its multiple themes of prejudice, patriarchy, small town mentality, and the power of resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
Director Olivia Newman (First Match) and screenwriter Lucy Aliber (Beasts of the Southern Wild) have hewn close to the source material in telling the story of Catherine ‘Kya’ Clark – an abandoned child living in the marsh (not swamp) area of North Carolina. The film’s non-linear structure allows for Kya (Daisy Edgar Jones) to narrate her tragic backstory whilst being on trial for the murder of popular Barkley Cove resident, Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson) in 1969. Kindly lawyer Tom Milton (David Strathairn) comes out of retirement to take on Kya’s case. Initially reticent to speak at all, Kya connects with Milton and fills in her history as the ostracised “Marsh Girl” living on the fringes of so-called civilised society.
Kya is one of five children living in a cottage in the marshes with her Ma (Ahna O’Reilly) and violent alcoholic WWII veteran Pa (Garret Dillahunt). Pa’s behaviour leads to Ma leaving the family and in quick succession the other children follow. It’s never explained why they all leave Kya (played in her youth by Jojo Regina) to endure Pa’s behaviour, but it does set up Kya’s fear of abandonment. Eventually Pa himself disappears from the cottage leaving the child to fend for herself. The only assistance she receives is from the owners of a local grocery store. The film implies that the Black couple who run the store recognise Kya’s outsider status because of the prejudice they too face but it never digs into race as a subplot. Jumpin’ (Sterling Macer Jr.) and his wife Mabel (Michael Hyatt) help to provide food and clothing for Kya whose method of survival is to dig up mussels and sell them to the store. Mabel also suggests that the illiterate Kya go to school in town, if only for the free lunches. Kya’s school education lasts approximately an hour as she is bullied for her otherness by the town’s children, and she runs back to the safety of the marsh.
Kya’s education comes from observing the natural life of the marsh which she exquisitely documents through her drawings. It also comes via the tutelage of local teen and eventual love interest, Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith). Tate, who was a friend of Kya’s brother Jodie, has always shown an interest in Kya’s wellbeing. During his final year of high school, he begins to send Kya messages by leaving feathers and supplies for her – almost as if he is trapping a wild animal. Kya responds and eventually the two fall in love. However, Tate is destined for college and has made the decision that Kya could never leave her beloved marsh, so essentially abandons her but not without teaching her to read first and giving her the idea to sell her drawings to a publisher.
Tate’s absence opens up the opportunity for Chase to pursue Kya. Dickinson imbues the character with the correct level of ‘bad ‘un’ energy. What starts as a romance soon devolves into violence with Kya noting that men like Chase (and her father) always need to get in the last punch. As long as Chase is around, she will never be safe. Their relationship has not gone unnoticed by the Barkely Cove residents, so when Chase turns up dead, even with a paucity of evidence, the police department and the town decide that Kya is responsible.
In the interim, Tate has returned, full of apologies for abandoning Kya, which she at first refuses to accept. With the publication of her illustrations in a book, Kya’s fortunes have changed somewhat for the better and until her arrest she is self-sufficiently living off her royalties. Her lack of trust of the world outside the marsh is fuelled by how deeply she has been let down by the community around her, but most distinctly by how the men in her life have treated her.
As far as plot goes, the film is a mixture of romance meets courtroom drama meets sympathetic heroine, but it is all deeply inert. Strathairn’s Southern Lawyer schtick is possibly the best part of the film, but the court scenes have no sense of urgency or even danger for Kya. Despite the prosecution angling for the death penalty if Kya is proven guilty, they only really have prejudice against Kya on their side and some extremely circumstantial evidence. The trial exists so Milton can give speeches about acceptance – in this case accepting a conventionally beautiful white girl as a symbol of unspoiled innocence.
Herein lies the core problem of the film. The audience is supposed to believe that Daisy Edgar Jones with her shampoo commercial shiny hair and surprisingly clean and pressed clothing could be considered feral by the surrounding community. Sure, young Kya turns up in town dirty and barefooted, but it seems that she takes in the lesson that she has to appear presentable even whilst gadding about the marsh on her own. With a seemingly unending wardrobe of flowing summer dresses and white billowing lace outfits, Kya couldn’t look less like the “half wolf, half girl” that the town accuses her of being. Whilst the film is trying to engage with Kya’s interior self, it seems to be blind to how much the exterior Kya undermines her “one with nature” status.
What the film does have going for it is the stunning cinematography provided by Polly Morgan. Shot in Louisiana, the area is beautifully captured, and it makes sense that Kya finds her marsh to be an endless source of fascination. Unfortunately, all the impressive scenery doesn’t make up for the source material or screenplay which fall apart with even the most cursory observations. The plot holes are gaping, and the film says nothing that hasn’t been said before and in a better way.
Where the Crawdads Sing may have seemed like a slam-dunk for producer Reese Witherspoon, especially since the inclusion of the novel in her Hello Sunshine book club created a literary sensation (and some earned controversy for Delia Owens). Perhaps if the book was written and adapted in the 1990s and starred Witherspoon herself as Kya, the more egregious aspects of the work could be overlooked. In 2022, Where the Crawdads Sing can be considered an exercise in taking women-led stories backwards and feels like a Hallmark film with a decent budget and an A-list cast.
