by David Shedrack

MOVIE:

Where the Crawdads Sing

WHERE TO WATCH:

Sunday, 28 May at 20:05 on M-Net (DStv 101)

OUR RATING:

3.5/5 Stars

WHAT IT’S ABOUT:

Kya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a young woman who, since being abandoned by the rest of her family as a child, is known simply as “Marsh Girl” by those in the small neighbouring town of Barkley Cove. The film revolves around the feral outsider and the few yet strong bonds she forms with people in the town, including store owners Mabel (Michael Hyatt) and James “Jumpin’ Madison (Sterling Macer Jr.) and Tate Walker (Luke David Bloom, then Taylor John Smith as adult Tate) who teaches her how to read and becomes her first love. She also reluctantly starts a romantic relationship with the preppy son of one of the town’s wealthier families, Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson). When Chase ends up dead, the Marsh Girl is, inevitably, immediately suspected of murdering him. Her only hope is a kindly defence lawyer, Tom Milton (David Strathairn).   

WHAT WE THOUGHT:

I have never read the novel of the same name by Delia Owens on which this film is based, but I swear I’m just about the only one in the world who hasn’t. I’ve seen it passed between multiple family members and their friends (all, to be fair, of the female persuasion). It was the most prominent book on display every time I walked into Exclusive Books over the past few years. It’s certainly a big enough literary sensation that the film rights were bought up almost immediately upon its release in 2018.

In January 2021, it was officially announced to begin principal photography and was released overseas in July of this year to, well, exactly the sort of reception you might expect. Four years may not seem like that quick a turnaround time for something this popular, but, of course, these were hardly four ordinary years. And considering just how popular the book has remained throughout those years, it is still very much the case of striking while the iron was hot.

I say all this because had the novel not been this massive phenomenon, I don’t think there’s a chance in hell this film would ever have been made. If it were, it certainly wouldn’t have received a theatrical release or even escaped the ghetto of the proper made-for-TV fare of the Hallmark Channel.

Where the Crawdads Sing is a very old-fashioned kind of movie. It’s the sort of drama that would probably have been classified as a “woman’s picture” in the first half of the 20th century. It features respected “character actors” rather than big stars, and its budget of $24 million is modest by today’s standards.

It is exactly the sort of film to garner very high audience scores, on the one hand, and a decidedly mediocre reception from most critics. Despite making “only” $125 million worldwide – a flop for any modern blockbuster – it has already made back five times its budget, which is not something you can say about most blockbusters.

Personally, though, I do wish the script by Lucy Alibar (Beasts of the Southern Wild) was wittier, less self-serious, and less clichéd. That director, Olivia Newman, would give the film just a bit more punch and emotional rawness. It is also somewhat unfair to want the film to be something that it isn’t. No doubt Alibar and Newman are just keeping as close as possible to the book – indeed, most fans of the novel have praised the film for its fidelity to its source text. It is very much to their credit that they have committed so totally to giving the fans what they want without resorting to cheap fan service.

Besides, the sheer warm-hearted earnestness of the film, in all its aspects, is part of its appeal. Complaining about its sentimentality or its lack of invention is as pointless as complaining about how it never really digs that deep into the themes of classicism or racism. Or that Daisy Edgar-Jones is far too poised, well put-together, and lovely to fit the image of this wild, feral young woman who raised herself in the uncivilised swamps of North Carolina.

I stand by my wish for the dialogue to have been given a bit of a spit and polish and for just a bit more humour. Still, most other criticisms that can be levelled at the film are effectively like criticising Star Wars for too many spaceships.

So yes, Ms Edgar-Jones isn’t made up to look like her character would in something more gritty and, ugh, “realistic”, but that doesn’t stop her from being, once again, excellent in the role that she’s given. If you hadn’t gotten the idea yet from Normal People and Under the Banner of Heaven, she’s a hell of a lot more than just a (preternaturally) pretty face; but is a massively talented actor and commanding screen presence. She absolutely carries the entire film, elevating even its more potentially cringe aspects.    

Harris Dickinson’s Chase Andrews screams toxic douchebag right from the off, and the film could make the point with a far smaller hammer, but Dickinson conveys that balance between charm and smarm well, and his character does exactly what he’s supposed to do. The same is true of very nearly every character outside of our heroine: they’re little more than 2D sketches, but because the film never pretends to be anywhere as interested in character as it is in plot and “feel”, that really doesn’t actually matter.

And that “feel” is really the big thing here. Not just in terms of its big emotions but in terms of evoking a time and place. Set in the late sixties and flashing back as far as the mid-’50s, the film doesn’t exactly play up the nostalgia factor by cramming the soundtrack with as many classic pop songs from that era as possible. It also doesn’t reference the sort of cultural touchstones of the period. This makes sense, of course, as the setting is not Haight Ashbury or Swinging London but a fictional small town in North Carolina and its surrounding marshes.

Instead, we are presented with a part of America where its most “civilised” aspects seem to be at least a decade out of time. Especially politically. Mabel and Jumpin’ Madison are presented as being forever on guard of ruffling even the smallest feathers of their white neighbours and customers, and where the vast majority of it is pure wilderness; only barely touched by human hands.

Indeed, the primordial aspects of the swamp are a major theme in the film. The cinematography by Polly Morgan (American Horror Story, A Quiet Place Part II) is beautiful – if quite idyllic. Even if the actual story was total crap (and it isn’t), the film would be worth a watch. It’s a lot like those Nicholas Sparks films in that respect – their evocation of similarly idyllic, small-town America makes even the worst of them thoroughly enjoyable to sit through.

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE: