Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia Owens’ publishing phenomenon is brought to the big screen in a slick, evocative – if not always convincing – translation.

The Swamp Thing: Daisy Edgar-Jones

Because Catherine ‘Kya’ Clark lives on her own in the bayou, she has become a figure of speculation and suspicion. It is 1969 in Barkley Cove, North Carolina, and when a body turns up in the swamp, suspicious minds immediately turn to the ‘Marsh Girl.’ First abandoned by her mother, then by her three older siblings and, finally, by her father, Kya has had to fend for herself, frightened of strangers and indebted to the natural world around her. Her abusive father (Garret Dillahunt) tells her not to talk to anyone and when he leaves, she relays in a melancholy voice-over, “I didn’t know how to do life without grits.” Then, gradually, the little girl turns into a woman and more worldly men from the local town start coming a ‘courting…

Where the Crawdads Sing was an original and resonant novel – written by the zoologist and conservationist Delia Owens – and became a publishing sensation, topping The New York Times bestseller list for two years in a row (2019 and 2020). A movie version was probably inevitable, although the talent selected to bring it to life is perhaps surprising. The director, Olivia Newman, had only made one feature before, First Match (2018), while the central role of the feral, Deep Southern Kya went to the pale, porcelain-featured Daisy Edgar-Jones, who made her name as the collegiate, patrician Marianne Sheridan in the BBC hit Normal People, itself based on a publishing phenomenon. Ms Edgar-Jones is a thing of beauty and those soulful eyes capture one’s heart, but her Kya feels too poised and sophisticated a figure to have grown up in a swamp. And, unlike everyone else around her, she doesn’t really sound Southern. Still, there is sterling support from American actors like David Strathairn, Sterling Macer Jr and Michael Hyatt to cement a degree of authenticity, even if the last-named was actually born in Birmingham, England. It is perhaps odd, too, that the London-born Harris Dickinson was cast as the antagonist, making this quintessentially American production feel more like a trans-Atlantic co-production. But then not everybody will know who Daisy Edgar-Jones, Harris Dickinson and Michael Hyatt are, and Mychael Danna’s evocative fiddle-and-banjo score and the sumptuous swampland scenery (Spanish moss and alligators) cast their own spell. It’s a heart-breaking tale unfolded with accomplishment, even if a veneer of slickness nudges it towards Nicholas Sparks romanticism and away from the raw lyricism of a film like, say, Benh Zeitlin's haunting Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012), which was also scripted by Lucy Alibar.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, Michael Hyatt, Sterling Macer Jr, Jojo Regina, Garret Dillahunt, Ahna O'Reilly, David Strathairn, Leslie France, Luke David Blumm, Blue Clarke, Logan Macrae, Will Bundon, Bill Kelly, Jayson Warner Smith, Dane Rhodes. 

Dir Olivia Newman, Pro Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter, Screenplay Lucy Alibar, from the novel by Delia Owens, Ph Polly Morgan, Pro Des Sue Chan, Ed Alan Edward Bell, Music Mychael Danna, Costumes Mirren Gordon-Crozier, Sound Ai-Ling Lee, Dialect coach Francie Brown. 

Columbia Pictures/3000 Pictures/Hello Sunshine-Sony Pictures.
125 mins. USA. 2022. US Rel: 15 July 2022. UK Rel: 22 July 2022. Cert. 15.