Where the Crawdads Sing
Director: Olivia Newman
Writer: Delia Owens (original author), Lucy Alibar
Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, David Strathairn, Michael Hyatt, Sterling Macer Jr., Garret Dillahunt, Bill Kelly (for literally two seconds), Jojo Regina
Reason for watching: New Release
Number of times I’ve watched it: first time viewing
***
Well that was incredibly pleasant despite the subject matter being objectively pretty horrible and terrible to think about. Honestly, Where the Crawdad Sing has a metric ton of terrible things that happen to the main character Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones). Everything from having family members abandon her to having someone she cares for physically assaulting her. Plus you have Kya growing up in the marshes of North Carolina in the 1960s living off a meager amount of money, instantly this character is who you are rooting for no matter what she is dealing with. And maybe stacking the deck that far in her favor was not the best decision.
As mentioned before Where the Crawdads Sing follows the odyssey of Kya Clark. After her family abandons her, she has to learn to fend herself at a young age in the swampy lands of North Carolina. Without necessary skills like reading or having parents to protect her, she spends most of her time foraging for mussels to sell and exploring the flora and fauna in the local swamps. Her knowledge of the local biology becomes great, but she has no one to share it with. Local neighbor Tate (Taylor John Smith) enters the picture and the two become fast friends, and eventually lovers. Tate teaches her how to read and write, and Kya begins journaling and drawing her nature discoveries. But when Tate leaves for college and does not return, Kya’s connection to the local town is gone. Eventually another boy Chase Andrews (Harris Dickson) takes interest in her, but he has a temper and is controlling. One day he turns up dead in the area not far from Kya’s home, and she is arrested. Local attorney Tom Milton (David Strathaim) takes Kya’s defense, but it is not clear if she can be proven innocent.
Edgar-Jones absolutely carries this movie with her performance. I won’t go so far as to say she deserves an oscar, but it the load on her shoulders is massive. All at once, she has to play scared, inquisitive, shy, and bold without letting the audience break the veil of disbelief. So she deserves credit. Strathaim is probably the next most important performance. His character is basically an Atticus Finch, and in some of the courtroom scenes I thought he pulling directly from Gregory Peck for inspiration. The rest of the cast is doing well, but none of them stand out. Honestly, they seem to be used in odd portions at times. Tate is gone for almost all of the second act of the movie and is not in all of the third act. Chase Andrews does not show up until after Tate is gone, and he is not in any of the courtroom scenes. Kya’s abusive father (Garrett Dillahunt) leaves never to return midway through the first act. There is a lot of important characters in Kya’s life that come and go, and I understand that it reflects how real life is at times. Some folks are only in your life for a season, but I would have preferred more time seeing Kya interact with different loved ones.
Okay to get into the rest of my opinion on this movie, I have to issue a spoiler warning. Because I think the last 5 minutes of the movie take our story in a very interesting direction. So SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT!!! Everyone clear out who doesn’t want to be spoiled. Aight here we go:
Basically, the hanging point of Kya’s trial is a necklace that Chase wearing the night he died. His parents saw him wearing this red shell necklace when they saw him last, and his body was discovered without it. It is presumed that chase died between midnight and 2:00 AM. However, Kya has witness in the publishers of her biology work. They can place her in a town a few hours away from the crime scene at around 9 pm. This makes it almost impossible for Kya to have somehow gotten back to where Chase was and have killed him without anyone noticing as she would have had to take the bus back which someone would have noticed her on. The jury finds Kya innocent, and she is released.
Tate and Kya get married and live together peacefully in her marshland home for decades. Eventually Kya passes away, and Tate must go through her things. In one of her personal books, he finds a hollowed-out section that has Chase’s red shell necklace. Knowing this would implicate his wife in a murder, Tate lets the shell fall out of his hand onto the shore where it is washed into the ocean. Then we cut to black and the movie ends.
Honestly, I respect the movie for ending like that. I selfishly wanted to see their last struggle with Chase and her finding a way to toss him to his death while protecting herself. But the movie just letting the facts only be implied is something that lets a viewer’s imagination run wild. On top of this, the whole theme of the movie is that Kya has been able to survive anything she faces in the swampy lands with her ingenuity and courage. Why would she not be able to face down the challenge of an abuser and come out on top? It reminds us that she is a survivor and not weak.
7/10
Until I see another one