|
|
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING
Director: Olivia Newman Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, David Strathairn, Michael Hyatt, Sterling Macer Jr., Garret Dillahunt, Jojo Regina, Logan Macrae, Bill Kelly MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 2:05 Release Date: 7/15/22 |
|
Review by Mark Dujsik | July 14, 2022 Where the Crawdads Sing has little idea of what story it wants to tell. It begins in 1969 with a dead body—the result of either an accident or murder—and moves with haste toward both a mystery and a trial. A young man is dead, and the primary suspect is Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who lives alone in a cabin in the marsh near a small town in North Carolina. The local Sheriff finds enough circumstantial evidence to arrest Kya, and surely, the more substantial reasons and pieces of evidence will come. They do, although that straightforward through line of a mystery/court drama is quickly dismissed. It turns out, this story is one about Kya's troubled life, which might have been fine under other circumstances. Lucy Alibar's screenplay, based on the novel by Delia Owens, makes the entire premise of this plot feel disingenuous and the whole structure of this narrative come across as a long anticlimax. The details of Kya's history are only important here because they might shed light on the puzzle that's established at the beginning. Since there's so little about the murder or accident until the third act, the constant flashbacks start to feel like a delaying tactic that keeps us distracted from how shallow the central mystery is in the first place. In 1969, that body is found, lying in the marsh beneath a fire tower. The young man fell or was pushed through an opening on the tall platform, hitting his head on the way down, and for reasons that are kept secret in a most contrived way, the cops immediately suspect Kya, known around town as "the Marsh Girl," was involved. Local attorney Tom Milton (David Stratharin) volunteers to represent Kya in court, and after showing the young woman some kindness, she begins to recite her life story. There's a lot of misery, mostly revolving around Kya's alcoholic and abusive father (played by Garret Dillahunt), whose anger and tendency toward violence drives away Kya's family members one at a time. First, her mother (played by Ahna O'Reilly), who taught a young Kya (played by Jojo Regina) to draw and paint, leaves, never to be seen again, and then, her older siblings leave one by one. Kya learns how to avoid her father's wrath and, with the help of local shop owners Jumpin (Sterling Macer Jr.) and Mabel (Michael Hyatt), that there is some kindness in the world. When Pa finally leaves, too, Kya is left to fend for and tend to herself, selling mussels to the shop and getting used to being alone. None of this, obviously, has much to do with the murder trial that could result in Kya's execution if she's found guilty (That leaves us wondering who the intended audience for Kya's narrative is, and a late revelation that it might not have been the lawyer only makes it more confounding). The occasional and brief returns to the courtroom in the story's present day, as Tom picks apart witness testimony and pieces of evidence, don't illuminate much in the way of details. They definitely don't generate any tension, since there's little to no context for any of the testimony and evidence being presented in court. Instead, we return to the flashbacks, which now concern two romances. The first for Kya is with Tate (Taylor John Smith), the son of shrimper with dreams of going to college, who teaches the lonely teen to read and write, while being very chaste about their relationship when things between them become lukewarm and slightly heavier than the feathers they gift each other. After that one collapses for reasons that certainly promise Tate's return later, the other of Kya's romances is with Chase (Harris Dickinson). After all of that dilly-dallying, we finally can put a face, a personality, and some actual information on the man whom Kya is accused of murdering. Even then, it takes a lot of time for the circumstances of a possible killing to emerge, and if Alibar and director Olivia Newman's game-playing with the mystery isn't clear by then, a ridiculous scene in which Kya and someone else toss a key piece of evidence back and forth—without any certainty of who ends up with it—makes it undeniable. Kya does find some fulfillment in her own pursuits and passions, but because of its focus on the romances and the mystery, Where the Crawdads Sing never persuades us that the character has a life beyond what the plot needs her to be. As for the answer to mystery, let's just say the case is so shallow and unconvincing that there's only one possibility that would be more ludicrous than the fact it's being brought to court in the first place. Copyright © 2022 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
Buy Related Products
|
(for sexual content and some violence including a sexual assault)
