CRAW DEAL...
BIG-SCREEN ADAPTATION FAILS TO SING FROM SAME HYMN SHEET AS THE HIT BOOK
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING (15) ★★☆☆☆ REVIEWS BY DAMON SMITH
I HAVE no idea whether freshwater crayfish – or crawdads as they are sometimes called in communities surrounding the Appalachian Mountains – sing in real life, as suggested by the title of Delia Owens’ international bestseller.
Caterwauling crustaceans are surely the preserve of Disney animations.
However, I do know that director Olivia Newman’s slowburning film adaptation, produced by Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon, is off-key for protracted periods of its languid two-hour running time, despite a solid central performance from Normal People star Daisy EdgarJones and ravishing cinematography courtesy of Polly Morgan.
Threaded with timely issues of domestic violence and female empowerment, Where The Crawdads Sing struggles to generate dramatic momentum or suspense as a much-abused protagonist goes on trial for murder in a North Carolina courthouse which routinely doles out death sentences.
The stakes should be nailbitingly high but our cuticles never comes under threat from Lucy Alibar’s script, which oscillates leisurely between events in 1953 and 1969.
Catherine “Kya” Clark (EdgarJones) learns to fend for herself from the age of six in a ramshackle house on marshland where her father (Garret Dillahunt) routinely beats her mother (Ahna O’Reilly) until the bruised matriarch leaves, followed by Kya’s older siblings.
Cruelly ostracised by residents of the nearby coastal town of Barkley Cove, Kya sells sacks of handharvested mussels to shopkeeper Jumpin (Sterling Macer Jr) and his wife Mabel (Michael Hyatt) to put food in her belly.
She also channels an enduring fascination with wildlife into writing and illustrating a book.
A touching romance with nice guy Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith) ends when he heads off to college then Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson) courts her.
When Chase is found dead at the base of a fire tower, the finger of suspicion points at Kya and lawyer Tom Milton (David Strathairn) agrees to mount a robust defence.
Where The Crawdads Sing evokes an era of suffocating, traditional gender roles.
Apart from Kya, townsfolk are drawn to serve her overarching plot but don’t leap off the screen as fully formed, morally complex characters. A heartfelt song, written and performed by Taylor Swift over the end credits, is the film’s truest splash of swooning originality.
■ In cinemas from Friday