With glacial pacing and overbearing depression, Hollywood has ruined yet another world-famous novel. This time it’s Where The Crawdads Sing - an interesting story from a famous novel that’s turned into a dud of a movie.
Delia Owens’ 2018 novel has become a massive hit, already selling more than 12 million copies worldwide in just a few short years. This film adaptation, slogged by the cumbersome vision of sophomore director Olivia Newman, will be easily forgotten by most viewers before they even leave the theatre.
Following the book’s narrative (and structure) closely, the 1960s story follow a young woman living in a North Carolina marsh named Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones), split between her growing up over two decades and her present-day trial for the murder of a young man in the nearby town.
The biggest problem in trying to enjoy the intrigue and drama of Crawdads is the inescapable sadness permeating throughout the film. And it’s not just the parade of tragic, melancholic events that befall Kya - it’s also the consistently sad tone of every single scene.
Kya’s drawn-out life story is truly dismal: between her family, isolation, land ownership conflicts and ridicule for simply living in a marsh, her life is a seemingly endless tale of sad things happening to her. That makes it really hard for audiences to stay invested.
Amplifying the problem is how slow-moving the film is. Several scenes of cautiously moving through swampland and overdrawn conversations between Kya and her two lovers drag down any momentum in advancing the story. And the slower it moves, the moodier and unhappier the story becomes.
None of this effervescent sadness, however, is the fault of the actors. Each member of the main cast is competent at worst ranging all the way to terrific. What they all have in common is that it’s hard to play anything higher than the script’s melodrama.
Daisy Edgar-Jones (in her first starring role for a film) is terrific as naturalist Kya, showing the audience her nature while hiding it from the other characters. And veteran actor David Strathairn plays Kya’s defence lawyer with an impressive fortitude without eschewing as Atticus Finch into To Kill a Mockingbird (though it’s tough not to compare.)
After less than an hour, multiple audience members in my screening got bored and started checking their phones - or left. The few promising moments for most of the run time turn into dead-ends as 20 years in Kya’s life are instead rushed.
Worst of all, what’s the reward for sitting through two hours of romantic, court-sanctioned boredom? A twist ending that betrays the sense of empathy audiences have built from the start. The final moments are so bad it nearly ruins the whole film that you just saw.
Anyone curious about where or why the crawdads sing would be better served buying and reading the book. Unlike this agonizingly slow movie, that way you can control the speed at which you experience the intriguing plot.
Where the Crawdads Sing
3 out of 10
14A, 2hrs 5mins. Mystery Drama.
Directed by Olivia Newman.
Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson and David Strathairn.
Now Playing at Film.Ca Cinemas, Cineplex Winston Churchill and Cineplex Oakville & VIP.
