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The cicadas buzz and the moss drips and the sunset casts a golden shimmer on the water every single evening. But while “Where the Crawdads Sing” is rich in atmosphere, it’s sorely lacking in actual substance or suspense.

Maybe it was an impossible task, taking the best-selling source material and turning it into a cinematic experience that would please both devotees and newbies alike. Delia Owens ’ novel became a phenomenon in part as a Reese Witherspoon book club selection; Witherspoon is a producer on “Where the Crawdads Sing,” and Taylor Swift wrote and performs the theme song, adding to the expectation surrounding the film’s arrival.

But the result of its pulpy premise is a movie that’s surprisingly inert. Director Olivia Newman , working from a script by Lucy Alibar , jumps back and forth without much momentum between a young woman’s murder trial and the recollections of her rough-and-tumble childhood in 1950s and ‘60s North Carolina. (Alibar also wrote “ Beasts of the Southern Wild ,” which “Where the Crawdads Sing” resembles somewhat as a story of a resourceful little girl’s survival within a squalid, swampy setting.)  

It is so loaded with plot that it ends up feeling superficial, rendering major revelations as rushed afterthoughts. For a film about a brave woman who’s grown up in the wild, living by her own rules, “Where the Crawdads Sing” is unusually tepid and restrained. And aside from Daisy Edgar-Jones ’ multi-layered performance as its central figure, the characters never evolve beyond a basic trait or two.

We begin in October 1969 in the marshes of fictional Barkley Cove, North Carolina, where a couple of boys stumble upon a dead body lying in the muck. It turns out to be Chase Andrews, a popular big fish in this insular small pond. And Edgar-Jones’ Kya, with whom he’d once had an unlikely romantic entanglement, becomes the prime suspect. She’s an easy target, having long been ostracized and vilified as The Marsh Girl—or when townsfolk are feeling particularly derisive toward her, That Marsh Girl. Flashbacks reveal the abuse she and her family suffered at the hands of her volatile, alcoholic father ( Garret Dillahunt , harrowing in just a few scenes), and the subsequent abandonment she endured as everyone left her, one by one, to fend for herself—starting with her mother. These vivid, early sections are the most emotionally powerful, with Jojo Regina giving an impressive, demanding performance in her first major film role as eight-year-old Kya.

As she grows into her teens and early 20s and Edgar-Jones takes over, two very different young men shape her formative years. There’s the too-good-to-be-true Tate (Taylor John Smith ), a childhood friend who teaches her to read and write and becomes her first love. (“There was something about that boy that eased the tautness in my chest,” Kya narrates, one of many clunky examples of transferring Owens’ words from page to screen.) And later, there’s the arrogant and bullying Chase ( Harris Dickinson ), who’s obviously bad news from the start, something the reclusive Kya is unable to recognize.

But what she lacks in emotional maturity, she makes up for in curiosity about the natural world around her, and she becomes a gifted artist and autodidact. Edgar-Jones embodies Kya’s raw impulses while also subtly registering her apprehension and mistrust. Pretty much everyone lets her down and underestimates her, except for the kindly Black couple who run the local convenience store and serve as makeshift parents (Sterling Macer Jr. and Michael Hyatt , bringing much-needed warmth, even though there’s not much to their characters). David Strathairn gets the least to work with in one of the film’s most crucial roles as Kya’s attorney: a sympathetic, Atticus Finch type who comes out of retirement to represent her.

This becomes especially obvious in the film’s courtroom scenes, which are universally perfunctory and offer only the blandest cliches and expected dramatic beats. Every time “Where the Crawdads Sing” cuts back to Kya’s murder trial—which happens seemingly out of nowhere, with no discernible rhythm or reason—the pacing drags and you’ll wish you were back in the sun-dappled marshes, investigating its many creatures. ( Polly Morgan provides the pleasing cinematography.)

What actually ends up happening here, though, is such a terrible twist—and it all plays out in such dizzyingly speedy fashion—that it’s unintentionally laughable. You get the sensation that everyone involved felt the need to cram it all in, yet still maintain a manageable running time. If you’ve read the book, you know what happened to Chase Andrews; if you haven’t, I wouldn’t dream of spoiling it here. But I will say I had a variety of far more intriguing conclusions swirling around in my head in the car ride home, and you probably will, too. 

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Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film Credits

Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some violence including a sexual assault.

125 minutes

Daisy Edgar-Jones as Catherine 'Kya' Clark

Taylor John Smith as Tate Walker

Harris Dickinson as Chase Andrews

Michael Hyatt as Mabel

Sterling MacEr Jr. as Jumpin'

David Strathairn as Tom Milton

Garret Dillahunt as Pa

Eric Ladin as Eric Chastain

Ahna O'Reilly as Ma

Jojo Regina as Young Kya

• Olivia Newman

Writer (based upon the novel by)

• Delia Owens
• Lucy Alibar

Cinematographer

• Polly Morgan
• Alan Edward Bell
• Mychael Danna

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Where The Crawdads Sing boils up a tasty beach-read gumbo

Daisy edgar-jones shines in olivia newman's adaptation of the best seller, which binds a lonely young woman's love story to a legal potboiler.

The task for director Olivia Newman and writer Lucy Alibar with their adaptation of Where The Crawdads Sing , like with many book club darlings that came before it, was to recreate as faithfully as possible Delia Owens’ 2018 novel—regardless of what improvements or deviations might be warranted for a different medium. By that standard, Newman’s film is a success: it’s as faithful an adaptation as could likely be managed, warts and all. But beyond the baseline proficiency in its filmmaking, the warts feel most worthy of discussion, even if they don’t diminish the original qualities that made Owens’ source material a best seller.

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In the Carolina marshes of the 1960s, police discover the body of Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson), purported lover of the locally reviled “Marsh Girl,” Catherine “Kya” Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones). When Kya is arrested and charged with Chase’s murder, she must rely on the generosity of local defense attorney Tom Milton (David Strathairn) to combat the rumormongering that has followed her throughout her life—at least enough to convince a jury that she is innocent of a crime for which there is little credible evidence against her. While Milton struggles to understand Kya, she recounts the story of her life.

The film is at its best during these ostensible flashbacks, weaving a tale of loneliness and a lifelong sense of betrayal that would be compelling even without the murder that theoretically drives the plot. Daisy Edgar-Jones, with movie star magnetism, plays Kya as strong by necessity, but also wounded deeply by a sense of abandonment after her older siblings and mother (Ahna O’Reilly) left her alone with the domineering force of her abusive father (Garret Dillahunt). Growing into young womanhood with only local shopkeepers Jumpin (Sterling Macer Jr.) and Mabel (Michael Hyatt) willing to assist her, Kya learns to survive on her own in the natural world of the marsh, until the lure of a childhood companion, Tate (Taylor John Smith), tests her willingness to open herself up to the possibility of being hurt yet again.

This makes for a compelling character study, albeit one informed primarily by a sense of isolation that the film’s brisk pace and courtroom framing device never authentically creates. However, for as much as we spend time with the rest of the cast, the performances they give are perfectly suited to the material. Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson broadly capture the diametrically opposed romantic influences in Kya’s life, drawing a thematic line between the necessity of loving someone even though they may hurt you, and the tragedy of loving someone despite the pain they willfully cause you. It’s the adult reinterpretation of the classic love triangle into a commentary on cycles of abuse, which was always the most potent component of Owens’ novel.

The standout supporting performances, however, are Sterling Macer Jr. and Michael Hyatt, whose characters walk a fine line in portraying humble Black shopkeepers while working to coyly undermine any white person who would threaten to hurt their or Kya’s livelihood. For characters that exist almost entirely to provide an explanation for why a 6 -year-old didn’t die in the wilderness for lack of resources, they exemplify Black survival against the prejudices of the time. The unfortunate side effect is that the narrative paints a false equivalence between the discrimination they face and the discrimination Kya faces, simply through their juxtaposition, creating a dimension to the story that feels racially insensitive on screen—as it did on the page.

The weakest link in the cinematic adaptation is the courtroom procedural that feels crowbarred between bits of Kya’s history. In a novel, chapter breaks can signal a natural demarcation between disparate story beats, but in a two-hour film, the transition between scenes should feel more natural, or at least thematically interconnected. Courtroom scenes pop up without warning, and they only function in parallel to, and never in conjunction with, the flashback scenes that proceed or follow them. Certainly small details from Kya’s past come into play in her incarcerated present, deepening some mysteries while offering plausible deniability in others—explaining, for instance, just exactly how the fibers of a particular red hat ended up on Chase Andrews’ body. But the courtroom drama itself is mostly inert, a distraction punctuated by extras gasping in the gallery at every minor revelation to nearly comical effect, only truly coming alive for a moralistic closing argument to explicitly drive home the themes of the story.

That said, Newman’s film gets enough right to be just as solid as a summer cinematic distraction as Owens’ book was as beachside literature. The atmosphere and beauty of the Carolina marshes are masterfully captured, and it bears repeating that Daisy Edgar-Jones is a magnetic leading presence, investing Kya with equal parts relatability and spiny distance for a character that seems to have leapt from the page, whole and vivid. Consequently, the biggest faults of Where The Crawdad Sings are ultimately the ones it inherited from the book—a challenge to reconcile when changes risk betraying the integrity, even identity, of the source material. But when you’re trying to adapt a book as authentically as possible, is that even a failing?

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‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ Review: A Wild Heroine, a Soothing Tale

Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as an orphaned girl in the marshes of North Carolina in this tame adaptation of Delia Owens’s popular novel.

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By A.O. Scott

“Where the Crawdads Sing,” Delia Owens’s first novel, is one of the best-selling fiction books in recent years , and if nothing else the new movie version can help you understand why.

Streamlining Owens’s elaborate narrative while remaining faithful to its tone and themes, the director, Olivia Newman, and the screenwriter, Lucy Alibar ( “Beasts of the Southern Wild” ), weave a courtroom drama around a romance that is also a hymn to individual resilience and the wonder of the natural world. Though it celebrates a wild, independent heroine, the film — like the book — is as decorous and soothing as a country-club luncheon.

Set in coastal North Carolina (though filmed in Louisiana), “Where the Crawdads Sing” spends a lot of time in the vast, sun-dappled wetlands its heroine calls home. The disapproving residents of the nearby hamlet of Barkley Cove refer to her as “the marsh girl.” In court, she’s addressed as Catherine Danielle Clark. We know her as Kya.

Played in childhood by Jojo Regina and then by Daisy Edgar-Jones (known for her role in “Normal People” ), Kya is an irresistible if not quite coherent assemblage of familiar literary tropes and traits. Abused and abandoned, she is like the orphan princess in a fairy-tale, stoic in the face of adversity and skilled in the ways of survival. She is brilliant and beautiful, tough and innocent, a natural-born artist and an intuitive naturalist, a scapegoat and something close to a superhero.

That’s a lot. Edgar-Jones has the good sense — or perhaps the brazen audacity — to play Kya as a fairly normal person who finds herself in circumstances that it would be an understatement to describe as improbable. Kya lives most of her life outside of human society, amid the flora and fauna of the marsh, and sometimes she resembles the feral creature the townspeople imagine her to be. Mostly, though, she seems like a skeptical, practical-minded young woman who wants to be left alone, except when she doesn’t.

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‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ Review: The Literary Sensation Becomes a Glossy Summer Popcorn Movie

David ehrlich.

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We may never know the full truth behind Delia Owens’ checkered past as a conservationist — which almost certainly seem to include a militant, white savior-minded approach to policing Zambian wildlife preserves, and may also extend to being a “co-conspirator and accessory” to murder — but the secret to the “ Where the Crawdads Sing ” author’s success is now as obvious as her plotting, even to those of us who had never heard of the runaway bestseller until Taylor Swift invented it a few short weeks ago. Olivia Newman’s (“First Match”) slick and glossy beach read of a movie adaptation brings it all right to the surface. Which is just as well, because the surface is the only layer this movie has.

Yes, this is an expertly contrived melodrama about defiance in the face of abandonment, and sure, it’s also a faintly self-exonerating caricature of a natural woman unspoiled by Western society. But underneath the story’s humid romance with Carolina marshland, and behind its Hollywood-ready façade of backwater Americana, “Where the Crawdads Sing” is really just a swampy riff on “Pygmalion,” with Eliza Doolittle reimagined as a semi-feral outsider who’s obviously the hottest girl in town, but lives in almost complete isolation until the Zack Siler of Barkley Cove teachers her how to read and make out.

Streamlined from its source material with the help of a Lucy Aliber script that embraces the frothiness of Owens’ book while turning down the temperature of its florid, nature is my real mama narration, the film version of “Where the Crawdads Sing” is a lot more fun as a hothouse page-turner than it is as a soulful tale of feminine self-sufficiency. That it’s able to split the difference between Nicholas Sparks and “Nell” with any measure of believability is a testament to Daisy Edgar-Jones ’ careful performance as Kya Clark.

The youngest daughter of an abusive drunk, and the only member of her family who stayed in their remote North Carolina house until the day Pa died sometime in the 1950s, Kya’s childhood was spent watching the people who loved her leave one-by-one (she’s played as a child by Jojo Regina). On her own from an early age, and dehumanized into folklore by the “normal” people in town — especially the kids, who label her “Marsh Girl” and laugh her right back to the swamp when she shows up at school without shoes on — Kya is forced to survive by selling mussels to the nice Black couple who run the local store (Sterling Macer, Jr. as Jumpin, and Michael Hyatt as his wife Mabel).

Some years later she’ll be hauled down to the Barkley Cove jail and forced to stand trial for the murder of a pasty cad named Chase Andrews; it’s there, at the behest of the retired lawyer ( David Strathairn !) who takes her case out of the goodness of his heart, that Kya is finally compelled to share her life story for the first time, her voiceover guiding us through the past in snippets of evocatively overwrought prose that establish her connection to nature. “Marsh is a space of light,” she coos, “where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky.” In a real time is a flat circle kind of twist, it often feels like Kya taught herself to write by reading all the other novels that have been canonized by Reese Witherspoon’s book club.

Of course, self-reliant and capable as Kya is, we soon learn that she learned her letters with the help of the square-jawed soft boy who grew up down the creek. The Dawson Leery to Kya’s Joey Potter, Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith) is a kind-hearted soul who lost some family of his own, which might explain why he always remembered the orphaned girl who everyone else in Barkley Cove was eager to forget. In the summer before college, Tate starts leaving Kya supplies on a tree stump — as if he were filling a food trap for a wild animal — only to discover that the Marsh Girl has matured into a movie star. It’s a genuine credit to Newman’s handle on her film’s silly-serious tone that she allows Kya, who doesn’t have electricity or running water, to look like she’s blown all of her mussel money on Pantene Pro-V. Anyway, kissing ensues. Sometimes amid a slow-motion vortex of leaves.

But if Tate thinks the Marsh Girl will always be waiting for him (a girl can only go so far without shoes), he’s in for a rude awakening; once the word gets out that Kya is a total catch, she becomes an irresistible fetish object for the kind of fella who might have less honorable intentions. Enter our corpse-in-waiting, Mr. Chase Andrews. Played by a slithering but somewhat vulnerable Harris Dickinson , who looks so much like Taylor John Smith that his dark-haired character might as well be the blond Tate’s evil twin, Chase loves Kya like a backhanded compliment, and talks down to her even when he’s trying to get her top off. We know he won’t be around for long, but did he fall from that rickety fire tower, or was he pushed? Surely a girl like Kya, so desperate for someone who might not abandon her, wouldn’t kill the one person who hadn’t yet?

That framing device of a question looms in the background of a movie that is far less interested in how Chase dies than it is by how Kya is persecuted for it — by how the Marsh Girl has remained innocent despite a lifetime of prejudice. Shy without being sneaky, naive without seeming childlike, and in tune with nature without going full “raised by wolves” (though the jailhouse cat’s instant affinity for her is a little much), Edgar-Jones’ wide-eyed performance completely sells us on Kya’s reality as a survivor. Her soft voice and defensive posture lend the character a lilting interiority that holds this movie together across multiple timelines.

It’s a doubly impressive feat in an adaptation that’s often edited to feel like a two-hour montage, a nagging issue that leaves “Crawdads” a little off-key from its slippery first half to its inelegant coda (though only one early scene of young Kya and Tate yapping at each other from separate boats truly borders on “Bohemian Rhapsody” territory). It’s just a shame the story’s ultra-predictable ending is presented in a way that denies us the full potential of Edgar-Jones’ performance, as Newman opts for hair-raising inference over primal satisfaction.

To that same point, “Where the Crawdads Sing” works best when it embraces its own true nature as a popcorn movie. Newman seems to recognize that “and David Strathairn” are the three most beautiful words that can ever appear in the opening credits of a studio film, and she gives the actor the space he needs to stalk across a sweaty courtroom in a white suit and make us gasp along with the small crowd of people who’ve gathered to witness Kya’s trial. Dickinson textures Chase as well as the script will allow, but delights in the character’s inherent punchability so that the film’s central love triangle never loses it shape. If Jumpin and Mabel still betray the career-long criticism that Owens tends to infantilize her Black characters, Macer and Hyatt ground their roles in a quiet dignity that pushes back against how they may have been written on the page.

As a movie, “Where the Crawdads Sing” never seems worthy of the hullabaloo that continues to surround the book, but — much like its heroine — Newman’s adaptation finds just enough ways to endure.

Sony Pictures will release “Where the Crawdads Sing” in theaters on Friday, July 15.

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Daisy edgar-jones in ‘where the crawdads sing’: film review.

A young woman raised in the North Carolina marshes becomes the subject of investigation after a grisly murder in this film adaptation of Delia Owens’ best-selling novel.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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Where the Crawdads Sing is the kind of tedious moral fantasy that fuels America’s misguided idealism. It’s an attempt at a complex tale about rejection, difference and survival. But the film, like the novel it’s based on, skirts the issues — of race, gender and class — that would texture its narrative and strengthen its broad thesis, resulting in a story that says more about how whiteness operates in a society allergic to interdependence than it does about how communities fail young people.

Directed by Olivia Newman ( First Match ), the film adaptation of Delia Owens’ popular and controversial novel of the same name tells the remarkable tale of a shy, reclusive girl raised in the marshes of North Carolina who finds herself embroiled in a grisly police investigation. Her name is Kya ( Daisy Edgar-Jones of Normal People , Fresh and Under the Banner of Heaven ), but to those in the neighboring town, whose residents abhor her, she is known simply as “Marsh Girl.” The account of her life is remarkable because it requires such a powerful suspension of disbelief, a complete abandonment of logic and total submission to the workaday beats of this story.

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Release date: Friday, July 15 Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, Michael Hyatt, Sterling Macer, Jr., David Strathairn Director: Olivia Newman Screenwriter: Lucy Alibar Based upon the novel by: Delia Owens

Since its publication in 2018, Owens’ novel has garnered rabid praise and heavy criticism. Reese Witherspoon , one of the film’s producers, made it her Book Club pick in September of that year, and to date 12 million copies have been sold. Fans of Where the Crawdads Sing tend to admire its beatific descriptions of Kya’s world and ostensibly gripping narrative of a girl abandoned and disappointed by almost everyone in her life.

Those less enchanted by the style and the glorification of hyper-independence have pointed out Owens’ troubling treatment of Black characters, the whiffs of classism in her use of dialect and the eerie connections between the novel and Owens’ alleged involvement in a 1990s televised killing of a poacher in Zambia. That latter story in particular reveals troubling levels of white saviorism and condescension toward African countries. That Owens — already well-known before the novel — has managed to build an even more successful career despite details of her past resurfacing is bewildering.    

Where the Crawdads Sing ’s problems can be traced back to the source material. The story, adapted for the screen by Lucy Alibar ( Beasts of the Southern Wild ), opens with the murder of Chase Andrews ( Harris Dickinson ), a beloved resident of the fictional town of Barkley Cove. Cops stumble upon his dead body in the marsh and, after haphazardly scanning the perimeter, declare it a homicide.

Residents of the town, a judgmental and gossiping bunch, are quick to point fingers at Kya, a naturalist and loner, who has lived in the surrounding marshlands for 25 years. After the police arrest Kya (she tries but fails to escape into the verdant, grassy terrain), they send her to jail. Tom Milton (David Strathairn), a local lawyer who has known Kya since she was a barefoot child, decides to represent the young woman.

The film — admirably shot by DP Polly Morgan — stitches together scenes of a nervous Kya in court with flashbacks of her past. Occasionally, Kya, through voiceover, includes additional details about her relationships and feelings toward other people. The first flashback takes us to 1953, where shots of the marshland, colored by a warm, vivid palette, are interrupted by the gray, subdued reality of Kya’s upbringing. She is one of five children, who, in addition to her mother (Ahna O’Reilly), are abused by her alcoholic and temperamental father (Garret Dillahunt). One by one, beginning with her mother, Kya’s family members leave the marsh. Why none of them try to take the youngest child with them is never explained.

This plot hole leaves room to contrive a situation in which Kya, whose father eventually leaves too, lives alone in her tiny family house that sits on acres of marshland. It also allows the film to establish what will become Kya’s most important connection: her relationship with the Black couple who own a local grocery store, Mabel (Michael Hyatt) and Jumpin’ (Sterling Macer, Jr.).

Kya, with the help of this unsurprisingly thinly sketched couple, manages to cobble a life together. She wakes up at dawn to harvest mussels, which she sells to Jumpin’ in exchange for provisions. Mabel teaches her how to count, gives her treats and sews her beautiful dresses (a nod here to costume designer Mirren Gordon-Crozier’s fine work). Occasionally, Kya must dodge child services and hawkish developers.

Although Where the Crawdads Sing is keen on highlighting Kya’s hyper-independence, she survives thanks to the help of Mabel, Jumpin’ and eventually Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith). Tate, a diffident, blond-haired, blue-eyed boy from town, leaves Kya some seeds, teaches her how to read and write and encourages her gift for identifying and drawing the shells, insects, plants and animals of the marsh. Their relationship evolves slowly, in the manner of a predictably plotted YA novel.

Kya is a perplexing figure considering the twists and turns the film takes; for someone whose survival skills and instincts are repeatedly telegraphed, she comes across as dangerously naïve. Jojo Regina, who plays Kya as a child, and Edgar-Jones, who plays her as a young adult, try to make sense of her, but their performances can’t overcome the inconsistencies of what’s on the page.

More flashbacks — 1953, followed by 1962 and then 1968 — show us how Kya’s relationship to the world outside the marsh changes. She learns to love and trust. Her heart gets broken: Edgar-Jones’ most impressive scene is when Kya, upon realizing she has been abandoned again, breaks down on the beach. Morgan’s dexterity with lighting is evident here, and I’d be remiss not to mention the beauty of the film, shot on location in Louisiana’s thick marshes.

Over the years, Kya starts to believe in herself more. She grows less reserved, finds new ways to share her talent with the world and make more money. She even falls in love again. Couple this coming-of-age arc with the courtroom scenes (taking place in 1969) and Where the Crawdads resembles an odd amalgamation of a Nicholas Sparks film, The Help and To Kill a Mockingbird . But whereas the latter two examples contained a modicum of racial awareness, Where the Crawdads Sing is largely devoid of just that.

The narrative depends heavily on racial and gender stereotypes and classist thinking to operate. Mabel and Jumpin’ exist to help Kya survive. Kya’s beauty and delicateness are so over-emphasized that she comes off more manic pixie dream girl than misanthropic protagonist. There is over-reliance on well-timed bombshells to keep us distracted. For many people, Where the Crawdads Sing struck an emotional chord, but it’s worth considering what one has to ignore in order to get there.

Full credits

Distributor: Sony Pictures Production company: 3000 Pictures Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, Michael Hyatt, Sterling Macer, Jr., David Strathairn Director: Olivia Newman Screenwriter: Lucy Alibar Based upon the novel by: Delia Owens Producer: Reese Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter Executive producers: Rhonda Fehr, Betsy Danbury Director of photography: Polly Morgan Production designer: Sue Chan Costume designer: Mirren Gordon-Crozier Editor: Alan Edward Bell Composer: Mychael Danna Casting director: David Rubin

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Where the Crawdads Sing Eats Itself into Nothingness

In a perfect vacuum, you probably wouldn’t guess that Where the Crawdads Sing is based on a runaway publishing phenomenon, a book that has sold more than 12 million copies in just a few years. One doesn’t have to have loved Delia Owens’s debut novel to see why it has appealed to countless readers. Part murder mystery, part swoony romance, part cornpone coming-of-age tale, it’s an atmospheric and gleefully overheated melodrama, the kind of book that might make you tear up even as you curse its (many, many) shortcomings. The movie is resolutely faithful to the incidents of the novel, but it doesn’t seem particularly interested in standing on its own, in being a movie . It feels like an illustration more than an adaptation.

The story of Kya Clark, a young girl abandoned by her destitute family and forced to survive on her own in a remote corner of the North Carolina wilderness, the film starts off (much like the book) with a murder investigation and then flashes back to her life. The body of a man, Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson), has been found in the woods, and suspicion has settled on Kya (played as an adult by Daisy Edgar-Jones), a loner known to much of the town as “the Marsh Girl.” Taking up the case is a kindly local retired lawyer (played by a much-needed David Strathairn), who believes that Kya has been accused not because of any actual evidence against her, but because she’s been an outcast all her life, ridiculed and hated for years by the townsfolk as some kind of crazy, uncivilized brute.

As we go through Kya’s earlier years, we see a childhood defined by solitude — her mother and her siblings all leave their abusive father one by one, and dad himself (Garret Dillahunt) eventually disappears, leaving Kya alone in the family’s run-down shack on the edge of the marsh. As she grows up, Kya is romanced by a couple of blandly handsome two by fours — nerdy-nice Tate (played by Taylor John Smith as a grown-up) who shares her obsession with nature but then abandons her, and then local rich-boy Chase, who seems fascinated by her but clearly has little interest in a real relationship. We’re supposed to like one and dislike the other, but both Tate and Chase are so underdeveloped that it’s initially hard to feel much of anything for either. They barely register as people. Smith does little but stare lovingly, and Dickinson (who has, to be fair, distinguished himself in previous roles) brings a dash of snotty entitlement to Chase, but not much else.

The best thing about both novel and movie is Kya herself, a submerged character who finds solace and companionship in nature, and who, never having lived anything resembling a normal life around other people, doesn’t quite know what to do with her emotions. As the young Marsh Girl, Jojo Regina is quite moving; your heart goes out to her when a character reads out the local school lunch menu as a way of enticing the impoverished Kya to attend class. It’s a tough balance, to present a child as being both feisty and vulnerable without going overboard into schmaltzy pathos, and the film handles that particular challenge fairly well. As the grown-up Kya, Edgar-Jones is perhaps best at conveying this young woman’s wounded inner life; that speaks to the actress’s talents. However, she never really feels like someone who emerged from this world, but rather one who was dropped into it; that speaks to the clunky filmmaking.

It’s kind of a shock to find the movie version of Crawdads so lacking in atmosphere, as you’d think that’d be the one thing it would nail. Not the least because that lies at the heart of the book’s appeal: Owens spends pages describing the rough, wild, primeval world in which Kya lives, and she convincingly presents the girl as a part of the natural order of this untouched world. At various points, Kya sees herself reflected in the behavior of wild turkeys, snow geese, fireflies, seagulls, and more. She calls herself a seashell and later on finds friendship in Sunday Justice, the jailhouse cat. Where the Crawdads Sing is a book that drips with atmosphere and environmental detail, which enhance our understanding of the protagonist — and help justify some of the story’s more dramatic turns. Owens is herself a retired wildlife biologist who had previously written a number of nature books before turning to fiction. It’s no surprise that her novel works best as an extension of her prior work.

By contrast, the film’s director, Olivia Newman, presents the marsh as a postcard-pretty backdrop, a mostly distant and at times surprisingly calm and orderly space. There’s little sense of wildness, of unpredictability or abandon. Readers will of course often imagine settings differently than film adaptations, but that’s not the problem here. Onscreen, the marsh just never really registers as any kind of place, and it certainly doesn’t register as a spiritual canvas for Kya’s journey. (At times, I wondered if some of the landscape shots might actually have been green-screened in.) Even the fact that Kya has spent much of her life drawing the wildlife of the region – which ultimately plays a huge role in who she becomes – doesn’t come into play until relatively late in the film. None of these would necessarily be problems if the film weren’t otherwise so faithful to the book’s narrative.

This is the challenge of literary condensation. The murder investigation and the ensuing courtroom drama are the least compelling parts of Owens’s novel, there mostly as a loose framing device to tell Kya’s life story. Indeed, she saves the bulk of the trial for the back half of the book, and then breezes by the suspense and the procedural back-and-forth, presumably because she’s not interested in all that. (Spoiler alert: She’s more interested in the twist she springs in her final pages – a twist that also has some eerie echoes of a real-life murder investigation in Zambia that Owens and her ex-husband are reportedly embroiled in, but that’s a whole other crazy story .)

That leaves the movie with a genre-friendly structure, but almost nothing to populate it with. As a result, for much of Where the Crawdads Sing , we’re left watching a not-very interesting and all-but predetermined trial, with little suspense or surprise. We don’t ever really see what the prosecution’s case is against Kya. (If you read the book, you’d have some sense of it, but even there, it’s cursory and half-baked.) It’s a classic Catch-22: The film, to stay true to its wildly popular source material, has to focus on the case, which in turn leaves the picture little room to breathe, to let the audience bask in the atmosphere of this fascinating milieu… which is at least partly why the source material was so wildly popular in the first place. So, forget the crawdads, the turkeys, the fireflies, the seashells, and the snow geese. Forget even the jailhouse cat. The movie is a snake that eats itself.

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Where the Crawdads Sing

A woman who raised herself in the marshes of the Deep South becomes a suspect in the murder of a man with whom she was once involved. A woman who raised herself in the marshes of the Deep South becomes a suspect in the murder of a man with whom she was once involved. A woman who raised herself in the marshes of the Deep South becomes a suspect in the murder of a man with whom she was once involved.

• Olivia Newman
• Delia Owens
• Lucy Alibar
• Daisy Edgar-Jones
• Taylor John Smith
• Harris Dickinson
• 726 User reviews
• 194 Critic reviews
• 43 Metascore
• 2 wins & 13 nominations

• Tate Walker

• Chase Andrews

• Jumpin'

• Jodie Clark

• Sheriff Jackson

• Little Tate

• Little Chase

• Little Jodie

• Deputy Perdue

• Eric Chastain

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Delia Owens : The author of the novel is seen in the courtroom sitting on the front row behind Tom when Patti is testifying about Chase's shell necklace.
• Goofs All the of the addresses of publishers Tate gives to Kya have ZIP codes. He gave her the list in 1962; the first ZIP codes were established on July 1, 1963 and were not in common use until the late 1960s/early 1970s.

Tom Milton : Listen. I know you have a world of reasons to hate these people...

Kya Clark : No, I never hated them. They hated me. They laughed at me. They left me. They harassed me. They attacked me. You want me to beg for my life? I don't have it in me. I won't. I will not offer myself up. They can make their decision. But they're not deciding anything about me. It's them. They're judging themselves.

• Crazy credits Kya's drawings appear alongside the credits.
• Connections Featured in Everything Wrong with...: Everything Wrong With Where The Crawdads Sing in 18 Minutes or Less (2023)
• Soundtracks Ain't It Baby Written by Kenny Gamble and Jimmy Bishop Performed by Kenny Gamble & The Romeos Courtesy of Jamie Record Co.

User reviews 726

• jacobbriscombe
• Aug 18, 2022
• How long is Where the Crawdads Sing? Powered by Alexa
• July 15, 2022 (United States)
• United States
• Official site (Japan)
• Official Sony Pictures
• Xa Ngoài Kia Nơi Loài Tôm Hát
• Houma, Louisiana, USA (street scenes)
• 3000 Pictures
• Hello Sunshine
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $24,000,000 (estimated)
• $90,230,760
• $17,253,227
• Jul 17, 2022
• $144,353,965

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 5 minutes

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Where the crawdads sing, common sense media reviewers.

Standout performances in uneven, trauma-filled adaptation.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Explores importance of nature, self-education, and

Kya is observant, a quick learner, a dedicated nat

Two of Kya's few friends are Jumpin' and his wife,

Children hear their father beating their mother an

Two love scenes: one quick, the other a bit longer

Insult language: "marsh girl," "White trash," "rat

High school- and college-age characters drink beer

Parents need to know that Where the Crawdads Sing is a romantic mystery/drama based on Delia Owens' bestselling 2018 novel. It's set in the coastal marshes of 1950s-'60s North Carolina, where young Kya is dubbed "Marsh Girl" because she lives in near-complete isolation. As a young adult, Kya (Daisy Edgar…

Positive Messages

Explores importance of nature, self-education, and being a lifelong learner. Depicts the many reasons people need companionship and love. Also looks at the lasting impact of trauma and abandonment and the loneliness of isolation. Themes include empathy and perseverance.

Positive Role Models

Kya is observant, a quick learner, a dedicated naturalist. She's incredibly smart and talented. Tate is generous with his time and knowledge. He's smart and loves the marsh as much as Kya, but he also breaks her heart. Jumpin' and Mabel are selfless and helpful.

Diverse Representations

Two of Kya's few friends are Jumpin' and his wife, Mabel, the movie's only Black characters of note. They're kind, generous, loving to Kya. Although their involvement in Kya's life is less stereotypical than it was in the book, they can still be considered examples of the "magical Negro" cliché -- i.e., characters of color who exist solely to aid White protagonists. Kya herself is a self-educated "genius" who doesn't attend traditional school.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Children hear their father beating their mother and siblings. A woman with visible bruises leaves her family. Siblings who are similarly hurt also leave, one by one. A father slaps his young daughter. A dead body is shown a few times. Intimate-partner violence continues in the next generation when Kya's former boyfriend stalks her menacingly and commits sexual assault and attempts to rape her, calling her "his."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two love scenes: one quick, the other a bit longer. Both show men's bare chests and a woman's bare shoulders and back. Two different couples are shown flirting, holding hands, kissing. One couple is about to have sex but stop before it happens.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Insult language: "marsh girl," "White trash," "rat girl," "cooties." "Damn," "damn you," "Christ sakes," "whoring," "goddamn." A Black man is called "boy" by a younger White man.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

High school- and college-age characters drink beer. Adults drink at a restaurant. Kya's father drinks to excess and acts like he's self-medicating to treat unspecified mental illness.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Where the Crawdads Sing is a romantic mystery/drama based on Delia Owens' bestselling 2018 novel. It's set in the coastal marshes of 1950s-'60s North Carolina, where young Kya is dubbed "Marsh Girl" because she lives in near-complete isolation. As a young adult, Kya ( Daisy Edgar-Jones ), who doesn't trust the nearby townspeople, is accused of murder. Like the book, the film deals with heavy subjects, including child abandonment, domestic abuse, and sexual assault. The language is largely insults and uses of "damn" and "goddamn"; a White man also calls a Black man "boy." Violent scenes involve disturbing acts of intimate-partner abuse, child abuse, and sexual assault. A character is alcohol dependent and has an unspecified mental health condition. Kya experiences two pivotal romantic relationships, both of which include kissing and love scenes. The movie's depiction of two Black characters, while better than the book's, still plays into the "magical Negro" cliché, in which a character of color exists only to help a White main character. Issues related to trauma and isolation are threaded throughout the story, but so are the importance of nature, conservation, and education, giving parents and teens plenty to talk about after watching. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (26)
• Kids say (35)

Based on 26 parent reviews

Excellent story but contains violence and sexual abuse

Great movie, for adults., what's the story.

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING is based on the bestselling historical romantic mystery novel written by naturalist Delia Owens. Set in a fictional North Carolina coastal town, the story takes place in the 1950s and '60s. In 1952, a young Kya Clark (Jojo Regina) witnesses her abused mother hurriedly leave the family, with the rest of the children following in her footsteps. Alone with her father ( Garret Dillahunt ), who's physically abusive and alcohol-dependent, Kya grows used to being alone in the marsh where her family's cabin sits. When her father also leaves, Kya learns to fend for herself with a little help from empathetic general store owners Jumpin' (Sterling Macer Jr.) and Mabel (Michael Hyatt). As she gets older, Kya lasts literally one day at the public school before bullying kids chase the "Marsh Girl" away. Years later, local high schooler Tate Walker ( Taylor John Smith ) teaches a now teenage Kya ( Daisy Edgar-Jones ) to read and write. After Tate leaves for college, Kya starts a relationship with popular quarterback Chase Andrews ( Harris Dickinson ), wooed by his promises of marriage and stability. When Chase is found dead in the marsh in 1969, Kya is accused of murder and defended by a local attorney ( David Strathairn ) who believes the townsfolk should feel guilty for mistreating Kya.

Is It Any Good?

The beauty of the natural setting and the central love story aren't quite enough to save this adaptation from the slippery slope of melodrama, but Edgar-Jones gives a standout performance. The genre-bending page-to-screen drama is like a classic tragic romance set in the American South, with young Kya an almost Dickensian figure. The cruelties that young Kya must endure are nearly unwatchable: Her entire family abandons her, her father slaps her, the other kids taunt her. Later, audiences will cheer as Kya grows into a young woman who observes all the fauna and flora of the marsh with joy and admiration (and as the lovely and selfless Tate takes an interest in tutoring her and clearly falls in love). But Kya's bad luck ultimately continues, and she ends up not with brilliant scientist-in-training Tate but with predatory and deceitful Chase, who's more interested in conquest than true love.

Screenwriter Lucy Alibar's adaptation makes the murder case against Kya the framing device that spawns flashbacks to the romances, tragedies, and family drama. But, unlike the book, the movie version of Where the Crawdads Sing doesn't fully explore each of those aspects of the story. The court proceedings in particular don't explore the details that make the eventual revelations pack an extra punch. What director Olivia Newman does explore is the way that darkness lurks just beneath the lush landscape. For every feather or shell that Kya collects, there's an ugly secret, a foul rumor, a moment of abuse to witness. It's no wonder Kya prefers the marsh to the town, the kindness of Jumpin' and Mabel to the scrutiny of Chase's friends. Kya, like the animals she's observed her whole life, knows when to shrink into herself as a survival mechanism. And while the movie can be overly sentimental, there are some lovely sequences, usually between Edgar-Jones and Smith. It also has notable messages about the importance of nature, love, and treating the disenfranchised with respect and dignity.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in Where the Crawdads Sing . Is it necessary to the story? Do different kinds of violence impact viewers differently?

How do trauma and substance use play a role in the story? What are some character strengths that Kya and Tate display? Who do you consider a role model ?

Discuss what role the setting plays in the movie. Why is nature so important to Kya?

If you've read the book, talk about any differences between the book and movie. What do you think about aspects of the book that the movie added or changed?

How does the movie treat sex and consent? Parents, talk to your teens about sex, consent, and sexual assault.

Movie Details

• In theaters : July 15, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : September 13, 2022
• Cast : Daisy Edgar-Jones , Harris Dickinson , Taylor John Smith , Garret Dillahunt
• Director : Olivia Newman
• Inclusion Information : Female directors
• Studio : Sony Pictures Entertainment
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Book Characters , Science and Nature
• Character Strengths : Empathy , Perseverance
• Run time : 125 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sexual content and some violence including a sexual assault
• Last updated : May 15, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Where the Crawdads Sing

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Watch Where the Crawdads Sing with a subscription on Hulu, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Daisy Edgar-Jones gives it her all, but Where the Crawdads Sing is ultimately unable to distill its source material into a tonally coherent drama.

A particular treat for viewers who love the book, Where the Crawdads Sing offers a faithfully told, well-acted story in a rich, beautifully filmed setting.

Critics Reviews

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Olivia Newman

Daisy Edgar-Jones

Taylor John Smith

Tate Walker

Harris Dickinson

Chase Andrews

Garret Dillahunt

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Book-to-movie adaptations can be notoriously difficult to nail. Get things right, and fans of the source material will sing its praises. Get things wrong, though, and the movie will become infamous. In the case of  Where the Crawdads Sing , Olivia Newman's adaptation of Delia Owens' best-selling novel, there is a very good chance it will find itself in the former category when it arrives in theaters. The gorgeously-shot movie is incredibly faithful to the book and will no doubt delight those who have eagerly devoured its pages. However, as a movie, Where the Crawdads Sing stumbles a bit in its transition from page to screen, though it is aided by a great lead performance.

Picking up in 1969, the sleepy town of Barkley Cove, North Carolina is shaken by the apparent murder of golden boy Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson). There is a shocking lack of evidence found at the crime scene, but rumors have already put a suspect on trial: The famed "Marsh Girl," a Barkley Cove legend who has been the subject of scorn for years. In reality, the Marsh Girl is Kya Clark ( Daisy Edgar-Jones ), a shy girl with a deep passion for nature. Turning back the clock several years,  Where the Crawdads Sing digs into Kya's life, her relationship with the surrounding marsh, and whether she might be involved in Chase's untimely demise.

Related:  Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris Review: Lesley Manville Shines In Wholesome 1950s Tale

Where the Crawdads Sing has been a book club favorite for years now, and as a result, its adaptation has some high expectations attached. Luckily, it is clear from almost the very beginning that Newman and her team have nothing but the utmost respect for the source material. Lucy Alibar has penned a screenplay that is filled with numerous details and lines lifted straight from the book, making this one of the most faithful adaptations in recent memory. To be sure,  Where the Crawdads Sing makes some adjustments here and there, but they are relatively small. By filming on location, Newman is able to make the most of actual marshes in the South, and cinematographer Polly Morgan does an excellent job at showcasing these beautiful natural landscapes. In many ways,  Where the Crawdads Sing really brings Kya's world to life in vivid fashion, including through the carefully detailed work of production designer Sue Chan.

However, there are places where the movie's devotion to the book causes it to run aground. Literally, in a way, as  Where the Crawdads Sing  holds some pacing issues. There are key moments in Kya's murder trial that should be filled with tension and suspense; instead, they lack the necessary urgency. On the specific topic of the trial, the movie suffers early on from jarring cuts between the past and the present. These get better as Chase's prominence in the plot increases, but the first portion of  Where the Crawdads Sing can't seem to find a suitable balance between Kya's early life and her uneasy future. Additionally, in its attempt to bring as many book moments to life as possible, the movie finds itself grappling with a few awkward moments that, while reading fine on the page, don't exactly translate well to a visual medium.

Where the Crawdads Sing 's greatest strength is Edgar-Jones (and Jojo Regina, who plays a younger Kya). Kya is a unique main character and Edgar-Jones does a great job in bringing her to life. Whether it is by expressing delighted wonderment over a gifted feather or retreating in on herself in the face of a potential death sentence, Edgar-Jones plays all sides of Kya with ease. Taylor John Smith takes on the pivotal role of Tate, Kya's first true friend. Armed with a kind smile and earnest disposition, Smith possesses all the charms Tate should have, and his chemistry with Edgar-Jones further sells their bond. As the more complicated Chase, Dickinson does a good job in gradually exposing the kind of man his character really is. Special credit should be given to Michael Hyatt and Sterling Mercer Jr. as Mabel and Jumpin, respectively; though their roles remain as sadly underwritten as they are in the book, they bring real heart to each and every one of their scenes.

Where the Crawdads Sing will surely appease fans of the book, and on some level, its adherence to the source material is to be commended. It is very clear the filmmaking team respects and appreciates the book. However, that passion doesn't entirely hide the cracks that emerge when transferring a story from one medium to another. The production itself and Edgar-Jones do much to bring this world to brilliant life. Ultimately, though,  Where the Crawdads Sing is unable to soar like the birds Kya admires so much.

More: Watch The Where The Crawdads Sing Trailer

Where the Crawdads Sing   releases in theaters Friday, July 15. It is 125 minutes long and rated PG-13 for sexual content and some violence including a sexual assault.

Our Rating:

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Where the Crawdads Sing (United States, 2022)

The screen adaptation of Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing , written by Lucy Alibar and directed by Olivia Newman, comes with a built-in audience – the novel has (to date) sold 12 million copies and, if only a fraction of those readers pays for a movie ticket, the box office intake could be impressive. Although it’s true that real-life controversies related to the author’s conservation efforts in Zambia during the 1990s have tainted Owens’ reputation, the movie is two degrees removed from any alleged criminal wrongdoing and should be allowed to stand on its own. Both Reese Witherspoon (who produced the film) and Taylor Swift (who contributed a song) share this view.

Where the Crawdads Sing (a metaphorical title since “crawdads,” a.k.a. crayfish, don’t make any noise) combines elements of an unconventional coming-of-age story with a procedural murder mystery. A portion of the story unfolds in 1969 with the murder trial of Kya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones), the so-called “Marsh Girl” who has been arrested in connection with the suspicious death of her ex-lover, Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson). As the trial unfolds, we are treated to a lengthy series of flashbacks narrated by Kya as she relates her past to her lawyer, Tom Milton (David Strathairn).

The movie is especially effective in the way it develops the North Carolina marshlands into as vital a character as any of the humans. The composition of many of those scenes (shot by cinematographer Polly Morgan) with their light, effervescent shades and darker shadows, echoes how the movie’s dramatic tone shifts and blends. The flashback sequences detailing Kya’s tenacity and isolation are among the film’s most compelling. It’s easy to understand how someone as intelligent and perceptive as Kya could fall for the seemingly transparent manipulations of Chase when one thinks back to the tragic (but beautifully filmed) 4 th of July when hope turns to loss for her on a beach.

The court proceedings are less interesting, seeming more often than not like excerpts from a low-rent John Grisham novel. Viewers may be more interested in the resolution of the mystery than the filmmakers appear to be. It’s treated largely as an afterthought (this is faithful to the novel) and, although there is a revelation of sorts, it’s perfunctory and not terribly satisfying. Although I wouldn’t go so far as to claim that the coming-of-age scenes are unique, the courtroom material feels less so.

I feel as if I’ve been using the term “old-fashioned” to describe the few recent movies that have focused on storytelling and character development. In a way, those qualities, which were once the hallmarks of well-received motion pictures, have become lost in a sea of special effects and spectacle-related aspects. Where the Crawdads Sing is not without flaws but it draws the viewer into its specific time and place and offers an engaging two-hour escape into the life of a memorable individual. More movies today could learn from such an “old-fashioned” approach.

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‘Where the Crawdads Sing’: ‘Blue Lagoon’ meets ‘Murder, She Wrote’

Southern-fried whodunit/romance is based on Delia Owens’s 2018 best-selling novel

“I don’t know if there’s a dark side to nature,” says the budding-conservationist protagonist of “Where the Crawdads Sing.” “Just inventive ways to endure.”

That’s how Kya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones) sums up her views on the animal kingdom — and humanity — in this lyrical coming-of-age story (which also doubles as a murder mystery). First-time director Olivia Newman, adapting Delia Owens’s 2018 bestseller, paints a lush picture of Southern marshland, using large brushstrokes that sometimes recall a Nicholas Sparks melodrama. Yet underneath all the natural beauty lurks something dark indeed.

The film begins in 1969, with Louisiana filling in for the fictional coastal town of Barkley Cove, N.C. Police are investigating the death of a young man named Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson) — the prime suspect being Kya, a recluse who has spent much of her young life living alone in the woods. Most townspeople call her “Marsh Girl” and know she had been romantically involved with Chase. They assume the worst of someone they’ve long thought of as a wild child. Fortunately for Kya, gentleman lawyer Tom Milton (David Strathairn) comes out of retirement to defend her.

As Kya tells her story to Tom, the “Crawdads” timeline shifts from the murder investigation to flashbacks of Kya’s troubled childhood. When she was little, Kya (Jojo Regina) stood by as her mother and, eventually, all her siblings ran away from home to escape their drunken, abusive father (Garret Dillahunt). The film’s title is taken from the advice of Kya’s big brother, Cody, who, as he leaves home, tells his 9-year-old sister where to hide when Pa comes looking for a punching bag.

In time, even Pa leaves. Yet there are people looking out for Kya. People like Jumpin’ and Mabel (Sterling Macer Jr. and Michael Hyatt), who run the local supply store, and, most crucially, people like Tate (Taylor John Smith), who befriends her, teaches her how to read and write, and gradually falls in love with her. “I didn’t know words could hold so much,” she tells him, before he, too, abandons her.

“Marsh is not swamp,” Kya narrates as the film begins. “Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky.” But as much as “Crawdads” seems to rhapsodize about nature, this is a violent paradise that at times suggests a young adult drama directed by Werner Herzog. (Yes, that Werner Herzog.)

London-born Edgar-Jones (“Cold Feet”) convincingly portrays Kya’s haunted shyness, though she doesn’t really look like somebody you or I would shun: Even though she’s raised herself in the woods, her pastoral wardrobe is less feral child than, say, Anthropologie’s summer collection. As Kya’s contrasting young beaus, Dickinson and Smith look pretty much interchangeable, but each actor aptly conveys his respective role: brutal jock in the case of Chase, and sensitive scholar for Tate. With Strathairn’s gentle gravitas suggesting an elderly Atticus Finch, much of “Crawdads” seems like a misty-eyed look at an innocent American past. Not to spoil things, but that’s not exactly what plays out.

Screenwriter Lucy Alibar (“ Beasts of the Southern Wild ”) adapts the source material with a nod to the magic realism that characterized her Oscar-nominated screenplay for that 2012 drama, co-written with director Benh Zeitlin. But although set in a similarly rural environment and, like “Beasts,” revolving around a father and daughter, “Crawdads” is much more conventional, its tone shifting from young love to a small-town crime story. It’s Southern-fried “The Blue Lagoon” meets “Murder, She Wrote” — and topped off with a sprinkling of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

But there’s a more curious resonance with Owens’s own personal life. According to a recent Atlantic article, the “Crawdads” author is wanted for questioning in Zambia in connection with the 1995 killing of an alleged poacher — whose execution was captured on videotape and, the article suggests, may have been carried out by a member of Owens’s family. (There is no statute of limitations on murder in Zambia.)

One might wonder whether the fictional narrative of the beleaguered waif in a judgmental small town is Owens’s way of addressing something in her own past. If there’s an impulse to see Kya as a somewhat Edenic figure, don’t be so quick to judge.

As Taylor Swift sings in “Carolina,” the film’s closing song — which, in its lyrics about “creeks runnin’ through my veins,” bridges pop music with Americana — there’s also an ominous warning: “Muddy these webs we weave.”

PG-13. At area theaters. Contains sexual material and some violence, including a sexual assault. 125 minutes.

"Where the Crawdads Sing" is a stupefyingly bad adaptation of spoon-fed melodrama

Delia owen's novel is crammed into this sluggish account of the marsh girl (daisy edgar-jones) accused of murder, by gary m. kramer.

For those unfamiliar with the bestselling novel, "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens — this stupefyingly bad big screen adaptation plays out as if Nicholas Sparks rewrote " To Kill a Mockingbird " and took out all the racial elements. 

The crawdads don't sing, but Taylor Swift does. 

The film is so blandly directed one might think it was made by Ron Howard . The blame belongs to Olivia Newman, who has no sense of pacing. The editing is clunky as the story jumps around in time. The performances are painfully earnest. The story involves a murder, but the subsequent courtroom scenes have no tension. The love triangle that develops has no passion. And the crawdads don't sing, but Taylor Swift does. 

The film is set in (the fictional) Barkley Cove, NC, in 1969. Kya ( Daisy Edgar-Jones ) explains, "The marsh is not a swamp," and, "The swamp knows all about death." She is "The Marsh Girl," a young woman who was abandoned by her family; her father (Garrett Dillahunt) was abusive and drove her mother and siblings away before he himself left. Kya is a preteen who lives alone in the marsh, mostly drawing shells, insects, and other images of nature.

The film opens with some kids finding the corpse of Chase Andrews ( Harris Dickinson ). Kya, who has barely been introduced, is suspected of his murder (and presumed guilty) because she is the local outsider. Fortunately, Kya does get the sympathy of Tom Milton ( David Strathairn ) a lawyer who comes out of retirement to defend her. Strathairn plays Tom less like a stoic Atticus Finch and more like stammering Jimmy Stewart. His "aw, shucks" quality is oddly exasperating. Tom claims he wants to "get to know" Kya, so he can keep her off death row, and so, the film recounts her story.

"Where the Crawdads Sing," jumps back to 1953 to Kya as a child (Jojo Regina) who is neglected and abused as well as teased when she goes to school barefoot and unkempt and can't spell "dog." She does get some kindliness from the Black couple, Jumpin (Sterling Macer Jr.) and Mabel (Michael Hyatt) who run a local store. They give her shoes, encourage her to pursue an education, and generally look out for her. At one point, Social Services asks Jumpin about Kya, but that plotline is dropped never to be raised again. It is uncanny that Jumpin and Mabel do not age during the film's primary time period, 1953-1969, nor do they seem to encounter any racism despite being the only Black people in the film. 

The film toggles haphazardly back and forth to the courtroom (some viewers may experience whiplash) where Kya is on trial. Testimony and evidence are presented against "The Marsh Girl," such as red fibers, which may be a red herring, but Tom Milton refutes it all shrewdly. 

Newman's direction is so sluggish the film never finds its rhythm.  

The main narrative focuses on Kya's love for Tate (Taylor John Smith) who brings her feathers and teaches her to read. Their budding relationship is depicted in a montage so insipid one's eyes might glaze over. As Tate talks about a tragedy in his past, leaves start swirling in the wind and the couple kiss in a Big Romantic Moment. It is obvious that director Olivia Newman wants this to be the swoon-inducing lovers-kissing-in-the-rain scene from " The Notebook ." Instead, viewers may fall down in fits of unintentional hysteria.

And while Tate is enough of a gentleman — he cares too much for Kya to have sex with her — he does break her heart when he leaves to go to college. More damaging, he breaks his promise to reunite with her one July 4th. Kya, having put on lipstick and a fancy dress for Tate's return, is despondent in a way not seen since the original "Stella Dallas." And, as if the despair wasn't already apparent enough, Kya voices her disappointment about her "heart pain" seeping away like water and sand. Cut to an image of water and sand as if Newton wasn't sure audiences could get the metaphor. 

"Where the Crawdads Sing" often spoon-feeds viewers everything they need to know with oh so tender voiceovers, dialogue, and images that simply overstate the obvious. For the many viewers who have read the book, there are no real narrative surprises (including the big "gotcha" twist). But surely the story could be told in a way — say, linearly — that would inject this overheated melodrama with some desperately needed dramatic impact. Newman's direction is so sluggish the film never finds its rhythm.  

The performances are also distracting. Daisy Edgar-Jones seems entirely miscast here.

When Chase enters the picture, he starts to woo Kya for reasons that are initially unclear to her. (Spoiler: he's just horny.) Chase fills Tate's absence in Kya's lonely, isolated, abandoned, remote, and secluded life. But his character is too unformed to generate much interest — until he starts abusing Kya. Of course, someone overhears her threatening to kill Chase in one scene, and this fact is brought out in the courtroom as damning evidence that she is guilty of murder. Cue gasps from the peanut gallery.  

It is a shame the film shoehorns so much of the book into two hours. It might have been better developed as a miniseries, where it could explore or at least develop its ideas and characters. The film only really scratches the surface of any of the critical issues raised, such as women's domestic and sexual abuse . Kya is nearly raped in one scene, and declines to discuss it with the authorities because she feels her claim will not be believed or supported. The final 10 minutes of "Where the Crawdads Sing" covers so much time so fast it is dizzying. But at last, Mabel ages!

Newton's focus on the murder case and Kya's two romances dilutes the arguably more interesting story of a young, independent woman getting an education and eking out life on her own. 

The performances are also distracting. Daisy Edgar-Jones seems entirely miscast here. She is completely unconvincing as a "wild" young woman whom everyone thinks is "trash." Her wide eyes convey disbelief at every opportunity, and it just seems like her default expression. When young Kya looks back at Mabel through the window in the store's door, having just been treated kindly, it provides the film's only poignant moment. When the adult Kya angrily glares at Tate or Chase it feels empty. 

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Moreover, Edgar-Jones has little to no chemistry with either of her male costars. Both Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson may look like they stepped off the pages of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog — Kya apparently has a type — but both actors give lazy performances. That is forgivable with Smith, who is playing the genuinely nice guy, but Dickinson, who is usually magnetic on screen, oddly lacks charisma here, which is fatal. 

Strathairn and Dillahunt border on doing some scenery chewing, but it may be that Newton does not trust them to underplay. As Jumpin and Mabel, Sterling Macer Jr. and Michael Hyatt play virtuous well.

"Where the Crawdads Sing" is disappointing adaptation. It is very much like a swamp: tepid and unmoving.

"Where the Crawdads Sing" is in theaters July 15. Watch a trailer via YouTube .

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Gary M. Kramer is a writer and film critic based in Philadelphia. Follow him on Twitter .

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