Based on the best-selling novel, WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, this film adaptation offers bland contrivances, stripped of all its rich narrative. Kya, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, is offered to us as the ‘Wild Child’ archetype, a young woman abandoned as a girl who raised herself in the wilderness swamps of North Carolina. But as civilization and the requisite hot young guys encroach on her world, she stumbles to deal with this new reality when one of her young suitors is found dead, and she is naturally blamed.
Unfortunately, every romance novel cliché is present, and the story kept crossing my suspension of disbelief. I cannot help but feel that the inexperienced actors, unseasoned director, and screenwriter simply thought that adhering closely to the novel would be sufficient.
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING fails to separate itself from the novel, quickly becoming tedious and tone-deaf.
