Where the Crawdads Sing: Beloved book adaptation bogged down by muddled storytelling – صحيفة الصوت

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Where the Crawdads Sing (M, 126mins) Directed by Olivia Newman **½

Not since Gone Girl, Fifty Shades of Grey or The Girl on the Train has a cinematic adaptation of a beloved book been so hotly anticipated.

While Delia Owens’ mid-20th Century-set North Carolina tale hasn’t quite hit the sales figures of those three literary behemoths, 12 million copies in around 40 months represents a pretty impressive return –and potential fanbase.

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Unfortunately, despite some seemingly smart choices in terms of screenwriter – Lucy Alibar is best-known for co-writing the provocative, evocative Beasts of the Southern Wild (which has thematic echoes to here with its story of a young woman’s coming of age and link to her natural surroundings) – and lead actor (Normal People and Under the Banner of Heaven star Daisy Edgar-Jones is brilliant at portraying the mix of vulnerability and steely determination that Crawdads’ protagonist requires), this often seems lifeless and bland, lacking some of the nuance and emotional gut-punch of the novel.

The dual narrative strand was always going to be a challenge, but this ends up feeling more than a little rushed (although the modern alternative of a seven or eight-part limited series would be probably even less palatable, or compelling).

It also evokes memories of movies from that bygone era of the late-1990s and early noughties, a somewhat clunky hybrid of John Grisham courtroom thriller and Nicholas Sparks romantic drama (a comparison not helped by the setting). The latter never truly compelling – mainly because both the blokes in the love triangle behave badly – and the former preposterous because of the prosecution’s ongoing stupidity.

For those unfamiliar with the source material, Where the Crawdads Sing chronicles the life of Catherine “Kya” Danielle Clark (Edgar-Jones). Raised in Barkley Cove’s marshes by an abusive father, she was abandoned by her mother and four siblings, as each of them found their own courage to leave.

Even after his death, she was still reviled and shamed by most of the nearby town, shown kindness only by the Afro-American couple who owned the local store and fellow swamp rat Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith), who teaches her to read and encourages her talent for both illustrations and knowledge of local fauna and flora. But after their relationship becomes romantic, his promise to keep in regular touch with her after he goes to college goes unfulfilled.

Hurt, Kya is eventually seduced by the continued attentions of chiseled scion Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson), even though his love language is sending her mixed signals – at best.

This backstory is all framed by Kya’s later arrest and trial for his murder. Found at the bottom of a fire tower, authorities are convinced “the best quarterback the town has ever had” fell 63m to his death after being pushed by “the marsh girl”. Despite no fingerprints, no tracks and a seemingly solid alibi, they believe Kya had the requisite ”time, motivation and weakness of character”.

With a jury of her peers from a community that has always judged her, Kya’s only hope of avoiding the death penalty rests in the hands of retired lawyer Tom Milton (David Straithairn).

While the film’s release has been further muddied by questions around author Owens’ own brush with authorities in Zambia, even that distraction can’t hide the fact that this adaptation is likely to polarise both fans and cinema audiences in general.

Director Olivia Newman (2018 wrestling drama First Match) certainly does a great job of creating a sense of space and place, especially with regards to the marshlands, but the courtroom antics rarely rise above the risible and the ending (admittedly, as in the book) feels rushed and – without some of the novel’s nuance – lacks the source material’s resonance.

“I wasn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence could be so full,” Kya says while learning to read, in a speech that becomes key to unlocking the story’s final mysteries. Here, without the narrative follow-through, they just feel more like empty phrases.

After previews in select cinemas today (July 20), Where the Crawdads Sing will screen nationwide from tomorrow (July 21).