Title: Where the Crawdads Sing
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Olivia Newman
Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson
Runtime: 2 hrs 5 mins

What It Is: Kya (Edgar-Jones) is a young woman that grew up in a small marsh in the Deep South. As her life unfurls she’s eventually left to raise herself by her parents. She finally meets a young man who teaches her all the things that life and school never did, including how to read and write. A skill-set she’d later find quite handy. Fast forward and she’s being accused of murdering a local man. One she has, as we find out, a checkered past with. But did she do it?

What We Think: This plays out in the expected way you’d imagine save for a desperate attempt to twist itself at the end. It didn’t work. Wasting one of my personal favorite character actors David Strathairn is not something I’m going to forgive. Daisy Edgar-Jones is having a helluva year. When you couple this in with her series Normal People and her turn in the fantastic horror film Fresh she’s getting WORK done. Her performance here is admirable but is ultimately let down by a bogged down script filled with moment after moment of wasted dramatic tension.

Our Grade: C-, This is a film working against it’s best intentions. Such a slog to get through I wanted to check my watch several times throughout. What I will say is Daisy Edgar-Jones is SO good at everything she decides to do that she ALMOST makes this watchable. I said almost. That said maybe stick to the book? I don’t know I have yet to read it and based on this film I for sure will not be doing that. It’s out now on VOD so if you DID read the book maybe check this out. If you’re like me though then there’s no reason to stick around for this one.