Luke McWilliams gives his review of the 2022 film based on the 2018 novel of the same name, Where the Crawdads Sing (M).

It’s the 1960s in the North Carolina marsh, where the body of a young man is discovered. The police arrest the local ‘marsh girl’, Catherine ‘Kya’ Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones); we then flash back to the 1950’s to see how she earned her epithet.

The novel was heavily endorsed by Reese Witherspoon’s book club, turning it into a bestseller, then producing the movie in turn. What first seems like a swamp-noir murder-mystery thriller in the vein of the excellent first season of True Detective, or a Southern courtroom drama ala A Time to Kill, the movie is instead more of a character study of our lead, Kya.

Kya’s childhood has been one of abuse and eventual abandonment; Kya is left to grow-up in the stunning but overly romanticised marshland for the better part of 10 years. Eschewing a society that looks down on her, Kya nevertheless attracts the attention of the dashing Tate (Taylor John Smith), and cad Chase (Harris Dickinson). This love triangle plays like a Nicolas Sparks romantic drama, with the strong-willed Kya fighting for her independent lifestyle while also navigating the pitfalls of love and attraction.

The pull of the marsh is strong for Kya, who adopts nature’s rules for survival as a personal principle, riding a fine-line of civility and being the primal ‘marsh girl’.

Verdict: A well-produced movie with a surprisingly weak story. The overall message is also troubling, even more-so that the novel’s author is currently wanted for questioning over a murder! 2 stars.

– Luke McWilliams, themovieclub.net. Viewed at Dendy Cinemas.

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