Where The Crawdads Sing Review - The Marsh Girl's Struggle for Love & Life Sings Better & Louder Than Crawdads

Delia Owens's 2018 novel, Where The Crawdads Sing, gets a cinematic adaptation starring Daisy Edgar-Jones in the lead role. First Match fame Olivia Newman comes in to direct an intriguing story of 'the Marsh Girl', and does well enough indeed. The title of the film, as in the novel, I mean, has a high metaphoric value to it. Crawdads cannot sing (how many of you even know what that means, BTW?), but here the meaning is twisted to make you believe the other side of the story. Smart viewers can start speculating from the first scene, especially taking the title as the major consideration, but others will have more than just crawdads' singing in the swamp to enjoy in this film.Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is left alone by her father and family at the age of seven and grows up on her own in a North Carolina marsh. Always away from city life and people, she is now known as 'the marsh girl' by others. Kya is educated by Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith) and begins a romantic relationship with him, only to get abandoned unexpectedly. Soon after, she begins an affair with Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson), who is found dead. The police and town people suspect Kya for the death of Chase, and she is arrested. A retired attorney, Tom Milton (David Strathairn), who couldn't tolerate people's baseless allegations, decides to defend Kya in the court trials. The narrative unfolds Kya's journey from childhood to present day as several arguments in court are being heard by the members of the jury.Delia Owens' novel is itself a thrilling material, despite lots of personal flaws towards the main character. Lucy Alibar could have fixed a few things here and there while writing the screenplay. She chooses the regular form of storytelling even though she knows that Kya's character could have been presented with more sympathy. Likewise, her love affairs with both Tate and Chase look dry as sandstone. Did she, or for that matter, did these two boys ever look so involved with her? I highly doubt it. In a novel, you imagine things in your mind, but in a film, you have visuals to show you the actual pictures. The film lacks a soul while exploring the main character and her romantic life. There are lots of kisses and steamy scenes, all over the bodies, but no hearts. It may bore you after a while, but thankfully, the climax covers most of it and you forget all that tedious stuff you passed an hour ago.Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kya is absolutely bang on. I never really imagined that an isolated girl could look so gorgeous and pretty. Daisy's innocent face makes the character look so beautiful that you instantly fall in love with her. Jojo Regina looks equally cute as little Kya. Tate's character has a lot of shades, perhaps the most among the entire cast, and Taylor John Smith ticks all the boxes with green ink. Harris Dickinson plays Chase Andrews, who is a good-looking boy with a charismatic personality, but he is sort of devilish too. Harris does make you wonder about the sudden transformation he has in some scenes. The supporting roles of Michael Hyatt, David Strathairn (the best of them all), Garret Dillahunt, and Ahna O'Reilly are good, but lack depth.Coming to technical aspects, Where the Crawdads Sing is a rich experience. Polly Morgan's camera shows picturesque images that will give your eyes the best frames they could have seen in a day. The music and background score are soul-tugging, while the editing by Alan Edward Bell drums up enough bells. This is a good improvement for Olivia Newman over her previous flick, First Match. This was a tough film to make, to be honest, but a very likeable challenge too. Newman brings justice to it, no matter if it is a little slower than expected. The pacing is the only major issue with the film, and that too, only because many have read the novel and therefore know what it has in store in the conclusion. The newcomers will be taken by surprise, for sure. Some of its quotes will definitely haunt you, if not the film. Especially the one about 'where the crawdads sing'. Overall, a healthy adaptation with its own highs and lows, but never a wasted one.