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Where the Crawdads Sing Movie Review: A non-linear tale set in the murky wetlands of the southern United States of America, comes Where the Crawdads Sing. Part-romance and part-courtroom drama, the film is a harrowing and an engrossing experience as Daisy-Edgar Jones gives one of the best performances of her career. However, after it ended, I was left feeling empty, and that’s what makes this such a weird story. 'Cos there is a lot of good over here, but some of the execution is what brings it down. Everything Everywhere All at Once Movie Review: Michelle Yeoh Knocks It Out of the Multiverse In This High-Concept Sci-Fi Drama (LatestLY Exclusive).
Directed by Olivia Newman and based on the 2018 novel of the same name, Where the Crawdads Sing follows Catherine “Kya” Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones) as she tries to prove her innocence after being wrongly accused for the murder of the town’s hotshot, Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson). Throughout the course of the film, we are treated with flashbacks to Kya’s young life where we see her be abandoned by her family and form bonds with new loved ones.
The movie directly opens up with the death of Chase as the police find his body drenched within the mud. Suspecting foul play, the town immediately points their fingers towards the “marsh girl”, Kya Clark as she is taken into custody. From here on we are treated to the earlier life of Kya as Jojo Regina portrays the younger version of her.
Seeing her story as she is abandoned by her family through a series of mishaps, Where the Crawdads Sing tries to bind the threads between these two separate timelines. One constant throughout them is the struggles of Kya, and Daisy-Edgar Jones is fabulous in those scenes. Portraying the harrowing experience of her young life, with Jojo Regina depicting the heartbreak of her childhood very well, Jones takes the entire cake over here. Showcasing her distrust in people while trying to be a reclusive and a naturalist, Kya’s story is very much something that you feel involved in.
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With being a recluse, she forms relationships with only those whom she feels safe around, and Where the Crawdads Sing has a colourful cast of characters to help with that. My favorite of them being the wife-husband duo of Mabel Madison and James Madison, portrayed by Michael Hyatt and Sterling Macer Jr, there is a sense of warmth their inclusion adds over here. Another great piece of casting is that of David Strathairn as Tom Milton, who takes on Kya’s case out of pure kind-heartedness while Taylor John Smith’s Tate Walker has great romantic chemistry with Jones.
The themes of Where the Crawdads Sing are quite well established as well with Kya’s story dealing with many aspects. Being a lonely girl living in a swamp, there is something about wanting to go out and experience new things, even so at the cost of what is a question that is pondered upon really well. There is a certain excitement too when she gives into such desires of falling in love for the first time and more that really brings you in, except it’s so miscalculated due to the non-linear structure of the story that it often ends up falling flat.
There never really is a good segway into the flashbacks. Where the Crawdads Sing cuts a lot from the courtroom aspects to give more flesh to the coming-of-age saga that the flashbacks present. There is never a consistent tone and that further pushes you away annoyingly. The juxtaposition of the two timelines do go hand-in-hand at times, but the payoff is rather underwhelming.
You will spend most of the time watching Where the Crawdads Sing and wonder just exactly how did Chase Andrew die, and the conclusion to it is really not all there. It’s like watching the snow in the sky slowly thin out into a snowflake as the story rushes to the finish line draining itself of all the substance it had spent the last 100 minutes building up.
Did Kya kill him? Did he die due to his own negligence? A more ambiguous answer would have gone a long way, even then, the dramatic effect falls flat. There is a plot twist towards the end that, in hindsight, should have blown my mind off, but Where the Crawdads Sing never knows how to execute it. Imagine Rose throwing off the Jewel at the end of Titanic without any buildup behind to it. Pinocchio Movie Review: An Inspired Tom Hanks Performance Can’t Save Robert Zemeckis’ Dispirited Remake of Disney's Classic (LatestLY Exclusive).
This takes away from the journey of self-redemption we had gone on and it just makes for a more disappointing last 20 minutes that I wish was handled with more care.
Yay!
Daisy Edgar-Jones
Supporting Cast
Nay!
Clash of Tones
Ending Lacks a Dramatic Feeling
Final Thoughts
Where the Crawdads Sing is a weird watch. The story definitely has it moments of engrossing drama that is beautifully carried by Daisy Edgar-Jones’ performance, yet it lacks a certain sense of execution that ultimately brings it down. Recommending this movie is hard, but if you do end up watching it, then Edgar-Jones’ performance will definitely not disappoint you. Where the Crawdads Sing is playing in theatres right now.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 16, 2022 11:53 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
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