‘Where The Crawdads Sing’: Of beauty, light, and the darkness within them

A brilliant Daisy Edgar-Jones, the spectacular visuals of life in a marshland, and a narration with a strong hold on the text help this rather straightforward story

(Originally published in The Hindu on September 18, 2022)

There’s a rhythm with which Where The Crawdads Sing flows, that makes the experience feel like reading a book. The frames are as soft as paper, the setting evokes the dimness of the pages of a lost book, and the slightest of details are written with long broad strokes. But the frames don’t flutter when they turn. Lucy Alibar’s screenplay of this Olivia Newman-directed movie has the right, measured pace to tell a rather straightforward story that is helped by beautiful shots of a lonely life in a marshland. The film is filled with textual and visual metaphors and just enough subversion to add more flavour.

In 1969, Catherine “Kya” Danielle Clark (played by a brilliant Daisy Edgar-Jones), a mysterious girl who lives in a marshland in Barkley Cove, North Carolina, is put on trial for the murder of Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson), a young man from the nearby town. From the prison, Kya begins to tell the story of who she truly is. In 1953, as a young girl, Kya (Jojo Regina) witnesses her mother abandon her children to get away from her abusive husband. In the months following, Kya’s three siblings abandon her as well, and the child now has to live under the shadow of her father, until he too leaves. Kya now has to fight, thrive, and learn to live all on her own. The narrative shifts between how the case moves inside the courtroom and Kya’s life up and until, but Where The Crawdads Sing isn’t a courtroom drama.

It is primarily a coming-of-age romance drama that also speaks of nature’s relationship with humans, the irony and artificiality of the world of men, the darkness within nature and men, and so on. Being abandoned by family and cut off from townsmen — who despise her existence and spread rumours and tell tales about ‘The Marsh Girl’ — the marsh is everything she owns dear. The marsh nourishes her and comforts her in ways only she could know. Being raised in seclusion and told to beware of the dangers that bring in…..

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Read the full article here: ‘Where The Crawdads Sing’ review