“Where the Crawdads Sing” is a heartbreakingly haunting adaptation of the eponymous novel written by Delia Owens. It is a stunning debut with speculated autobiographical details of the author’s life that lurk amongst the pages of the novel. Owens is a naturalist and conservationist who has spent twenty-three years of her life in Africa researching animals. Her love for nature screams loudly through her characterization of Kya, or Catherine Daniella Clark, the protagonist of the novel. It would be withholding of information if we simply classified the novel/film as a simple record of Nature – it somewhere reminds the readers/ viewers about Henry David Thoreau and Waldo Emerson’s quintessentially American philosophy of Transcendentalism. A very intelligent way of categorizing a plot of this sort is to call it a romance. But it is not just a “boy meets girl” story; it is the tale of man’s, or in this case, a woman’s, union with nature. And if romance dramas are not your cup of tea, the subplot follows a courtroom trial for murder. It is needless to say that the novel was a phenomenon. Adapted for the screen by Lucy Alibar and directed by Olivia Newman, the film, with its beautiful cinematography and the good acting commitment shown by the actors, serves as a decent piece of entertainment that might transport you to the Southern Gothic marshes of North Carolina. Haunted by the spirits of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer and Matthew McConaughey’s brilliant character Mud, the southern marshes have the reputation of breathing life into a bildungsroman. This film is no exception. Besides, it looks like poetry in motion that eulogizes isolation and champions Kya’s independence and self-reliance.
“Where the Crawdads Sing” was released on 15th July 2022 in the United States. In spite of receiving mixed reviews, the film was received quite positively by the audience, and it turned out to be a box-office success. The calm, serene, highly meditative story is supported by a melodious soundtrack by the composer Mychael Danna. Taylor Swift’s original song “Carolina” has been earning accolades on behalf of the film too. The mysterious air that pervades the film, the powerful characters, and the good acting performances from the entire cast make the film worth giving a shot at.
Here is a full list of who breathes life into the characters in this dramatic, heartfelt, thrilling romance:
Spoilers Ahead
Daisy Edgar Jones As Catherine Daniella Clark, AKA Kya
Set in the 1960s in the small town of Barkley Cove, North Carolina, the plot of the film revolves around Kya. She is abandoned by her family to grow up alone in the marshes in her grandfather’s leased-out land and fishing shack. She learns survival techniques, the art of fending for herself, harvesting mussels, and living on grits worth fifty cents. Her only friends are the mollusks, moths, and birds and crawdads that inhabit the marsh. She spends her time sketching and cataloging them. The local grocer and his wife are her only human friends. Mabel, the wife, tries to persuade her to join the local school, but the kids treat her as an outsider, earning her the title of the Marsh Girl. Eventually, she makes friends with a local boy named Tate, who is her brother’s friend. It is Tate who teaches her to read and write. In him, she finds her first love. But when Tate leaves for college, Kya realizes that he is not going to return and probably she will remain unknown and forgotten forever.It is only after the authorities discover the body of the much beloved best local jock that the town’s attention falls on this girl, now the prime suspect in the ex-athlete’s murder. Her hiding grounds, which were barred by oak trees, changed into a cold, lonely cell guarded with steel bars after she was arrested for undergoing a trial. She recounts her story to the world through her lawyer during this trial. The film, in turn, can be treated as a commentary on isolation or what isolation can do to an individual, how society tends to isolate people they can’t make sense of, and how popular belief can manipulate the dominant narrative.
Kya, the moment she appears on screen, can be related to this pretty little doll, but when times come to show what she is really capable of, she really excels. It took Daisy Edgar Jones’s innocent but strong demeanor to portray a vulnerable yet powerful character like Kya. Daisy Edgar Jones is quite a popular face for young viewers because of her portrayal of Marianne in the television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s “Normal People.” She also appeared in the film “Fresh” alongside Sebastian Stan in 2022.
Speaking about the character of Kya, we can’t ignore the vulnerability and helplessness of little Kya, as portrayed by Jojo Regina. Barefoot and abandoned, little Kya is the one who shows sparks and hope of a better future for Catherine Clark, who would fabricate a new life and new home without ever living in the marsh by becoming an author of biological works only at the age of 22.
Taylor John Smith As Tate Walker
The son of a shrimper, Tate Walker, meets Kya for the first time as a child. He guides her home through the meandering waterways of the marshes. This is precisely what he would be doing for the rest of his existence. They reunite as teenagers. This time around, he transforms her life for the better. He teaches her to read and write and encourages her to continue her little cataloging of the local wildlife. They are each other’s first lovers. Tate believed that Kya would never be able to embrace urban life. This made him abandon Kya even when he knew that it would break his heart. Later in the film, Tate does come back, and they do get a happy ending—straight out of a fairytale.
Taylor John Smith has been spotted in films like “Hunter Killer,” “Wolves,” “Shadow in the Cloud,” and “The Outpost.”
Harris Dickinson As Chase Andrews
Chase Andrews is a popular white boy of Barkley Cove with all the rich boy privileges. He was a football player who peaked in high school, and an entire town remembers him for being an accomplished jock. He becomes romantically interested in Kya, and Kya becomes his secret escape. At a point in the film, Kya is raped, beaten, and eventually betrayed by Chase, who doesn’t disclose his relationship with the Marsh Girl to the world but gets engaged to the local sweetheart, Pearl. It is his murder and the murder accusation against Kya that disclose the town’s hypocrisy towards young Kya.
Harris Dickinson is known for his roles in “Beach Rats,” “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” “Clique,” and “The King’s Man 3.”
David Strathairn As Tom Milton
Tom Milton is Kya Cark’s lawyer. He dresses his part to be the quintessential Southern lawyer. He comes out of retirement to fight Kya’s case because he believes that the town has done a great wrong by isolating her and not giving her an opportunity to tell her own story. He is that messiah figure who fights against prejudices to help the meek.
David Straithairn is a veteran. He has won probably every prestigious award there is for acting in America. He began his career with “Return of the Secaucus Seven” and has appeared in films and series like “The “Good Night and Good etc.
Garret Dillahunt As Pa
Kya’s father, Pa, is a WWII veteran. He suffers from PTSD. He is abusive and an alcoholic. His behavior forces his wife to leave him. His children, one by one, follow the path of his estranged wife – a family of seven reduced to just Kya and her dad. For a little while, they cohabit peacefully until they receive a letter from Kya’s mother. In the course of time, he also abandons the seven-year-old Kya. Pa and his absence play a major role in Catherine’s character development and, somewhere, makes this film her quest to find the perfect father figure.
Garret Dillahunt has appeared in films like “Army of the Dead,” “No Country for Old Men,” and television series like “Mindy Project.”
“Where the Crawdads Sing” is now streaming on Netflix.