WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING : Tuesday 26th July 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING' earlier this week, and this American mystery drama film is Directed by Olivia Newman and is based on the 2018 best selling novel of the same name by Delia Owens. This is Olivia Newman's second feature film outing following the 2018 release of 'First Match' on Netflix. The film is Co-Produced by Reece Witherspoon and the title song is written and sung by Taylor Swift. It cost US$24M to produce, has so far grossed US$49M, and has garnered mixed Reviews from Critics while audiences have been kinder. The film was released last week too Stateside. 

The film opens up with the body of a Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson) laying face up dead at the base of a fire tower with the local Sheriff Jackson (Bill Kelly) and his Deputy Joe Purdue (Jayson Warner Smith), looking over the corpse and climbing up the somewhat delapidated fire tower in an attempt to ascertain did he fall by accident, did he jump or was he pushed. We are in the marshlands of North Carolina not far from the coast and it is 1969. 

We then jump back in time to the 1950's and young girl Catherine 'Kya' Daniel Clark (Jojo Regina) is growing up in those same marshlands in North Carolina. She is a resourceful young girl, and she and her three older siblings and her mother and father live in shack located off the beaten track in the marshlands. Her father 'Pa' Clark (Garret Dillahunt) is an abusive alcoholic who fritters what little money away that they have. As her mother 'Ma' Clark (Anha O'Reilly) and older siblings, one by one, flee his physical abuse, Kya is ultimately left alone with him. In time, her father softens but he too one day just ups and leaves her, without warning. Now she has to become self sufficient and learn to live her life on her own. She starts pulling fresh mussels out of the sand along the coastline early every morning and selling them by the fresh bag load to the local general store owner and his wife James 'Jumpin' Madison and Mabel Madison (Sterling Macer Jnr. and Michael Hyatt respectively). A few weeks later she spends her only day ever, at school, and runs away crying because of the taunts she receives from the other children. The local townspeople of Barkley Cove know very little about young Kya, nicknaming her 'The Marsh Girl'.

On the day that her father left, Kya takes his boat to the edge of the ocean but gets lost while trying to find her way home. Fortunately, she comes upon a slightly older boy named Tate Walker (Luke David Blumm), who is fishing and who guides her home safely. He was a friend of her older brother Jodie, and had known Kya since she was a very little girl. Tate then begins visiting her in the marsh, and they become good friends throughout their teenage years. He teaches her to read, write and count, and lends her books to read. They both share a keen interest in the local flora and fauna of the marshlands and in time their friendship grows into something more. However, Tate (now Taylor John Smith) subsequently learns that he has been accepted to a prestigious College and as such will be leaving Barkley Cove but vows to return in four weeks so that they can watch the July 4th fireworks from a secluded beach. However, Tate fails to honour his commitment leaving Kya distraught. 

Over the next few years, her intricate drawings and paintings of the local flora and fauna and knowledge of biology grow, Kya sends her nature drawings and research writings to a publisher, as previously encouraged to do by Tate before he left for college. She also learns that the 350 acre marshland that her property stands on is hers by inheritance, but that anyone who pays the property taxes on it, becomes the lawful owner. There is US$800 in unpaid taxes outstanding. The US$5,000 income from the book helps her keep her family's property, and keeps the developers away. The publishing of Kya's book leads to her reuniting with her older brother Jodie (Logan Macrae), now a military veteran. He informs her that their mother had wanted to track down the other children but she became sick and died from leukemia. Jodie promises to visit her when he can. 

It is now 1965, and the nineteen year old Kya becomes entangled in a relationship with Chase Andrews, Barkley Cove's popular quarterback, who promises to marry her. When Kya discovers that Chase is already engaged to another girl, she furiously ends their relationship. Meanwhile, Tate returns to Barkley Cove, wanting to apologise to Kya for abandoning her and rekindle their romance, but Kya is at first angry with Tate and very reluctant to enter into a relationship with him again. Chase, meanwhile continues to pursue Kya, but she rebuffs him. He then violently attacks and tries to rape her at a secluded beach but Kya successfully fights him off and strikes him to the head with a rock, repeatedly kicks him and loudly vows to kill him if he doesn't leave her alone. This threat is overheard by a local fisherman.

Later, we go back to the opening scene in which Chase is found dead at the bottom of the fire tower from which he has fallen. The tower is located in a wet and muddy marsh that floods at high tide, so wiping out any footprints and no fingerprints were found on the tower. A shell necklace Kya had given Chase was missing from his body, and he had been wearing it the evening of his death as reported by his mother who had dinner with him that night.  The very next day, Kya is charged with murder and overwhelmingly prejudged by the over zealous and suspicious townsfolk.

On the stand in the courtroom, Kya is represented by local retired Lawyer Tom Milton (David Strathairn) who had always treated Kya, even as a young child, with respect and kindness. Despite the knowledge that Kya had been in Greenville to meet with a book publisher the night of the murder and the following day, the police speculate that she could have disguised herself and made a quick, round-trip, bus tour back to Barkley Cove and the fire tower during the night. The police have little evidence to go on other than their unproven theory, the missing shell necklace, along with the testimony from the fisherman, and do not have a strong case, so she is ultimately found not guilty at her trial in 1970.

Though Kya and Tate never formally marry, they live together as loving partners in the same shack that she grew up in, albeit subsequently fitted out with many mod-cons that her book publishing income and royalties paid for. Over the years, Kya (now Leslie France) publishes more illustrated books about the local nature, and she is often visited by Jodie and his family. After her death in her mid-70's, Tate (now Sam Anderson) finds the missing necklace at the back of a diary she had hidden. It was the only evidence that could have convicted her. Tate then leaves the shell from the necklace in the water, forever hiding Kya's secret in her beloved marsh.

I had not read the 2018 best selling novel upon which this film is based, and so can't comment on whether this is a fair adaptation or not. That said, it's an entertaining enough murder mystery, coming of age romantic emotional court room drama film that is elevated by Edgar-Jones performance and an assembled cast of fine acting talent, but the script has so many plot holes, loose ends and unanswered questions that I left the theatre feeling somewhat shortchanged. The film does, however, look the part capturing all the beauty of the marshlands, and is reminiscent of the big picture romantic drama's of the 1990's that have been more noticeably absent from our cinema screens in recent years.

'Where the Crawdads Sing' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-