Where the Crawdads Sing

Ten Second Review: Daisy Edgar Jones shines in a way that almost shows up weaker elements of this marsh movie.

I‘ve been bombarded with the trailer for this film every time I’ve been to the cinema recently. I had become so used to the beats of it that I noticed them as they popped up watching the actual film. I knew of the book, and how big it had been, but I hadn’t read it so I didn’t know the ending as many may have. Colour me intrigued…

Kya (Daisy Edgar Jones) lived out alone in the marsh. The townsfolk share their rumours about her; part wolf, glowing eyes and so on, but she is content living deep in nature. When a local boy is found dead in the marsh, Kya is quickly blamed, but a lawyer is willing to take the case and help her out of her predicament.

This film is a real mixed bag. I certainly enjoyed it, but it fought me throughout. The things that won me over were Daisy Edgar Jones in the lead role who was very believable and gave an enjoyable performance. I truly could not fault it. I also loved the setting and it truly felt like you were meandering down rivers, brushing through the bush, a fly on the wall.

There was however a few things I couldn’t get past. The first is the the two younger men in the film, Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson. I found both them and their characters a little unbelievable in the way their dialogue came together and how it was delivered. The character that eased through Edgar Jones was missing and they felt forced. A smaller note is also the CGI birds. I know that getting a bird to fly in the right place is near impossible, but the use of CGI here felt too noticeable. Better intervention through the use of shadows and reflections at points would have helped, but mostly it felt like a lighting issue. 

There was also a much less tangible veneer of inauthenticity to the film. I realise as I write this that my two previous comments contribute to this, but further, everything felt so clean. So freshly made. So new. This didn’t feel like places people lived and worked, it felt like film sets.

As I said, I didn’t read the book so I can’t make a comparison between how they both made me feel or how faithful the film was. What I can say is that Edgar Jones was a delight to watch in a story that I did enjoy. While it was not the complete package for me, I can certainly imagine audiences enjoying it very much. 

I liked the Taylor Swift song too.