Grade: C+
Delia Owens’s novel “Where the Crawdads Sing” got the attention of Reese Witherspoon, who included it as a book club selection, and produced the new movie of the same title. It opens in October 1969, in the fictional town of Barkley Cove, North Carolina. It’s one of those movie towns with little to no extras, and where the events of the plot seem to be all anybody’s talking about, from the judges and the school marms to the barflies. A couple of boys stumble upon a dead body in the marsh, who turns out to be Chase Andrews, a popular hot-shot in the town. Kya becomes the main suspect, living so close and having recently been romantically involved with Chase.
Kya is the only one remaining in the secluded house by the marsh, after her siblings and mother fled from her abusive alcoholic father, and then eventually the father left as well. Kya is reclusive, and is dubbed the “Marsh Girl” by the townspeople. Where the Crawdads Sing jumps back as far as her childhood in the mid-1950s, to the early 60s, up to 1969, where her imprisonment and trial happen. We see her as a teenager, befriending a nice boy named Tate, who teaches her how to read and becomes her boyfriend. He seems almost too good to be true. A wonderful sincere guy, until she gets stood up by him on a promised 4th of July date on the beach. She then becomes involved with Chase. We, the audience, might like him just fine, if the screenplay didn’t obviously telegraph that we’re not supposed to, and if we hadn’t already met Tate, who was so close to perfect. Chase is a little forceful and full of himself.
The film is populated with actors who were unknown to me, except for two. David Strathairn is an Atticus Finch type, a kindly old former lawyer who comes out of retirement to represent Kya. My friend Don Stallings has a couple of scenes as Tate’s father. What a happy surprise it was to see him. The movie seems unsure what it wants to be, and disjointedly pinballs through various genres and talking points. Is it a courtroom drama, an old Southern true crime murder mystery, a coming of age tale, a Pygmalion-type puppy love romance, a comment on #metoo, or something else? I don’t mind movies that dabble in several different territories, but Where the Crawdads Sing never quite coalesces into anything meaningful or sustainable. The writing is chock-full of the kind of pretentious one-liners you might see in a meme on Facebook, like dialogue from a Terrance Malick movie, but without the substance to earn it. The actors playing Tate and Chase look confusingly too similar to one another, and I think each actor could have played either part. I did come away with an admiration for Daisy Edgar-Jones, who does nice work as our Kya, and I look forward to seeing how she bounces back from this. I think she can.
Where the Crawdads Sing is a potentially interesting idea that bogs itself down with soapy melodrama. The mystery of the murder is eventually revealed, or – I should say – articles I read online afterwards filled me in as to what really happened. It’s frustrating that we can’t find out in a satisfactory way from the movie. A few short silent flashbacks to flesh things out would have really helped. There is an interminable amount of voice-over narration as the film jumps back and forth in time. It just made me wonder who she was talking to. Of course it ends with some more of that, where she tells us how she’s out with the fireflies, and we can find her where…ok, no points for guessing where, but you’ll be able to mouth it along with her.
Grade: C+
Film Reviews by Mark 
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