To its credit, this suspense drama does not turn into a Southern Gothic melodrama, as I half-feared it would.  To be sure, Where the Crawdads Sing employs typical clichés and stereotypes familiar to the form, yet it does so sparingly and more often turns our expectations for such tropes inside out, avoiding them when they are most expected and then popping one in when it best suits the tone of the story.  The drama is sensitively performed (perhaps too sensitively) and the story conveys its lessons well . . . but I think I was also expecting a little more punch and impact.

Olivia Nelson’s film follows yet changes some of the details of Delia Owens’ popular novel (I haven’t read it but my wife Barbara has, and she really enjoyed it).  An abandoned child in a North Carolina hamlet comes of age learning how to survive on her own and trusting no one else.  Mya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones), known as the Marsh Girl by the short-sighted local folk, is befriended by two young men, Tate (Taylor John Smith) and Chase (Harris Dickinson).  Eventually one of them is found dead and Mya is assumed to be the culprit.  During her trial the film flashes back through her life to bring her experiences to life.

While the marshlands are certainly scenic and full of activity, I expected the area to be seen as more dangerous, especially since a body is discovered very early in the story.  I think that making the marshlands more threatening would have heightened the film’s impact.  I also thought that the courtroom climax would be more, well, climactic.  But the film doesn’t consider the verdict to be all that important; it’s Mya’s personal journey that is more imperative.  And the film’s best scenes address her growing maturity, how she allows both men into her heart only to be disappointed in both cases, and why she feels so connected to the marsh.  Edgar-Jones is quite adept as Mya, yet the film’s finest performance is by David Strathairn as her self-appointed lawyer, Tom Milton.

Primarily a character-driven suspense drama, this film can also be seen as a cautionary MeToo Movement tale: men are not to be trusted and women are blamed and shunned for society’s failures to correct bad behavior.  That this framework is so apparent actually lowers the film’s effectiveness in my view.  I think it would have been preferable to let things play out without certain emphasis and let audiences draw conclusions on their own, even if that means subliminally.  Nevertheless this is a powerful story, very nicely filmed, crowned by a haunting Taylor Swift song, “Carolina,” during the end credits.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  24 July 2022.