Delia Owens, a 2018 novel by Delia Owens, took the literary world to a raging storm Where the Crawdads SingIt was no surprise that the film was picked up by film distributors. This movie adaptation was made.. Reese Witherspoon, a producerOn the upcoming mystery drama, Marsh Girl Kya has selected the book for her Hello Sunshine Book Club. Now audiences will see the struggles of Marsh Girl KYA on the big screen. Where the Crawdads SingIt has been screened by critics in advance of its July 22 release. The reviews are in.
Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Kya Clark. She is a young girl who must grow up quickly and learn how to survive in the North Carolina marsh after her siblings and parents abandon her. Kya finds herself a Suspect in a MurderWhen her ex-boyfriend Chace (Harris Dickinson), turns up dead.
How did directors’ critics feel? Olivia Newman’s vision of Delia Owens’ best-selling book? Let’s turn to the reviews, starting with CinemaBlend’s review of Where the Crawdads Sing. Our own Sarah El-Mahmoud rates the film 3 stars out 5, saying the film loses some of the spirit of the beloved book, as Olivia Newman seems to avoid the story’s grittiness in a somewhat glossy adaptation. She claims:
Even if a story is well-received and has a substantial budget, it doesn’t mean that the spirit of the character must be made appealing and marketable. When the core of her being is someone who is not polished and discarded by the mainstream,
Hoai-Tran Bui of SlashFilmThe film was also disappointing for me, with a rating of 6/10. According to this review, the film is turned into a romantic comedy that turns the murder mystery into a glamorous romance. “soapy snooze”:
Despite the shady stories about its author and the sensationalist murder trial that makes up its bulk, Where the Crawdads Song is pretty boring. It fails to make social commentary, and its heartstring tugging is mediocre. It starts off promising with the bildungsroman, but then it turns to a soapy love triangle that feels more like a Nicholas Sparks fail. David Straithairn and Edgar-Jones are the only ones who save Kya. They give a warm, friendly performance as Kya’s lawyer and provide a listening ear throughout the trial that almost seems to have convicted her of murder on the basis of circumstantial evidence.
Lovia Gyarkye The Hollywood ReporterCalls the adaptation a “muddled moral fantasy”The narrative is heavily based on gender and racial stereotypes. Although the Black characters are poorly developed in this review (a fault of book as well), Kya is portrayed as beautiful and delicate, making her appear more. “manic pixie dream girl than misanthropic protagonist”:
Where the Crawdads Sing is the kind of tedious moral fantasy that fuels America’s misguided idealism. It’s an attempt at a complex tale about rejection, difference and survival. But the film, like the novel it’s based on, skirts the issues — of race, gender and class — that would texture its narrative and strengthen its broad thesis, resulting in a story that says more about how whiteness operates in a society allergic to interdependence than it does about how communities fail young people.
David Ehrlich of IndieWire grades the movie a C+, saying Olivia Newman made Delia Owens’ literary sensation into a summer popcorn flick, as it never dives deeper than surface level. The film adaptation isn’t worthy of same celebration received by the book, but it finds just enough ways to endure, in large part thanks to its star, the review says:
The film version, Where the Crawdads Sing, is much more enjoyable as a hothouse page-turner that it is as an inspiring tale of female self-sufficiency. That it’s able to split the difference between Nicholas Sparks and Nell with any measure of believability is a testament to Daisy Edgar-Jones’ careful performance as Kya Clark.
Owen Gleiberman VarietyMeanwhile, you can find Where the Crawdads Sing “compelling,” but says Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Kya is quite “poised”And “refined”A character who survived on her own, is called a “wild child.” Overall, Where the Crawdads SingHe believes that the dark side of romance is as romantic as it gets.
Where the Crawdads Sing is at once a mystery, a romance, a back-to-nature reverie full of gnarled trees and hanging moss, and a parable of women’s power and independence in a world crushed under by masculine will. … The ending is a genuine jaw-dropper, and while I wouldn’t go near reveling it, I’ll just say that this is a movie about fighting back against male intransigence that has the courage of its outsider spirit.
If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you’ll be able to check out Where the Crawdads SingIt will be in theaters Friday, July 22, 2012. You can check out our website until then. 2022 Movie Release CalendarTo find out which other films will soon be playing in your area, visit our website.