When I saw the trailers for 2022’s Where the Crawdads Sing, I thought to myself, “Wow, that looks like every beach-read, book-club romance novel wrapped up in one swampy setting.” Then I watched it, and guess what?
That’s exactly what I got, and it didn’t work all that well.
I think Where the Crawdads Sing has a problem knowing what kind of movie it wants to be. It follows the life story of Kya, a young woman who raised herself in the North Carolina marshes. She finds love and other not-so-great experiences as an outsider to society.
At its core, it’s a serviceable enough romance. In fact, it almost feels like a variation on The Notebook, as a particular romance shapes much of Kya’s experiences.
It’s not the most compelling story I’ve ever seen, but it scrapes by on those well-worn romance tropes. The problem comes when the “trials and tribulations” of Kya’s life become literal as she stands accused of murdering another love interest.
This attempt at an interesting hook just doesn’t have enough substance to really work. Every now and again, there are courtroom scenes that attempt to heighten the drama and mystery of the death. But their timing is so off amidst the narrative of Kya’s life that makes up the bulk of the movie.
You almost forget that there’s a trial happening, and when it does come back up, it’s so…humdrum. It loses all the tension that a murder trial should have because the movie spends so much time elsewhere in Kya’s life.
And I’ll be honest, Kya’s life outside of the trial was kind of exhausting. From the first 15 minutes of the movie, Kya’s story is one depressing event after another. But the sympathy I had for the character came from the fact that she was a small girl in a bad situation; it had nothing to do with the actual character of Kya, because I didn’t really know her yet.
We really don’t get any time to know her before she’s abused, abandoned, and heartbroken. I felt like the story relied too much on Kya’s circumstances than Kya herself.
The writing doesn’t develop the “Marsh Girl” and murder trial aspects enough for them to be interesting on their own. And if you take them away, you’re left with a pretty standard melodrama that’s been done over and over.
With that said, the saving grace of all this flat writing is the acting. The casting director for this movie knew exactly what they were doing. Performances from child actors are hard for me to love, but the actor playing young Kya (JoJo Regina) absolutely nails the facial expressions of a morose and timid little girl.
Daisy Edgar-Jones as the young adult versions of Kya also has that same impressive body language down. And while some of her dialogue is a bit clunky, she does the best she can with it. Both actors did a great job of breathing life into a character who otherwise would have felt like she was an outline cut from a poster promoting abuse prevention.
Then there’s Taylor John Smith, who plays love interest Tate. He’s the picture-perfect visualization of the dashingly handsome good ol’ country boy. If you enjoy classic romance stories, especially ones with tasteful shirt removal scenes, you’ll love Smith here. (He also acts well, which is always a nice bonus.). And finally, there’s the gravitas of veteran actor David Strathairn playing the classic southern lawyer to round things out.
In addition to good performances – and good looks – the movie really makes the marshes of North Carolina look lush and beautiful. There’s a bird swooping in the opening shots that uses questionable CGI, but other than that, the wildlife and greenery are very appealing to the eye.
I don’t want to fall into the trap that is “genre movies can’t be Films-with-a-capital-F.” But Where the Crawdads Sing can’t escape the basic tropes of its romance genre. It does try to add something extra by making its lead a literal outsider and adding in the mystery of a possible murder. But neither of those elements is well-written enough to elevate the movie. In fact, the murder trial sort of bogs the whole thing down, if you’ll forgive the wetland pun.
Basically, there’s not much reason to watch this particular movie over virtually any other romantic drama out there. It’s not going to ruin your day to watch it (although *spoiler* there is a scene of sexual assault and several of physical abuse), but you can almost certainly find something more well-rounded.
