Where The Crawdads Sing (film)
Where the Crawdads Sing was released in the United States on July 15, 2022, by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Edgar-Jones's performance and the cinematography, but found the film's overall tone incoherent. Audience reception was more positive and the film became a box office success, grossing $144.3 million worldwide on a $24 million budget.
Mychael Danna composed the film's soundtrack, which includes the original song "Carolina" by Taylor Swift. The song won an MTV Movie & TV Award and was nominated for various accolades, such as a Critics' Choice Award, a Golden Globe, a Grammy, and a Satellite Award.
Plot
In 1969, local quarterback Chase Andrews is found dead at the bottom of a fire tower from which he had apparently fallen. The muddy bog floods at high tide, destroying any tracks from the killer, and no fingerprints are found in the tower. The shell necklace, which he had been wearing on the evening of his death, is missing from his body. Local woman Kya is charged with first-degree murder and prejudged by the suspicious townspeople. Retired attorney Tom Milton visits Kya and hears her story upon planning to represent her.
Kya's story begins when she lives in a shack with her poor family in a North Carolina marsh in 1953. As their abusive, alcoholic father gambles their money away, Kya's mother and older siblings flee one by one, leaving Kya alone with him until he too abandons her at the age of seven. She survives by selling mussels at Barkley Cove's general store, owned by Mabel and "Jumpin" Madison, who become Kya's good friends. The townspeople know her as the "Marsh Girl".
Over the years, Kya's slightly older friend Tate Walker lends her books and teaches her to read, write, and count. They share an interest in nature and begin a romantic relationship until Tate leaves for college and breaks his promise to return to her on the 4th of July.
Five years later (in 1968), Kya begins a relationship with Chase Andrews, who promises her marriage. Chase gives Kya a small shell which she makes into a necklace and gives to him. Kya has her nature drawings and writings published and the income helps her keep her home.
In 1969, Tate returns to Barkley Cove wanting to rekindle their romance, but Kya is unsure. She ends her relationship with Chase when she discovers he is already engaged to another girl. Kya's older brother Jodie reappears as a US Military Soldier and tells her their mother died before she was able to reunite her children. He promises to visit when he can.
Kya rebuffs Chase's persistent attentions and successfully fights off his rape attempt, vowing to kill him if he does not leave her alone. The threat is overheard by a fisherman. Chase returns and vandalizes Kya's home while she hides in the bushes.
Back in the present, Kya's trial has begun. Despite knowing Kya had been meeting with a book publisher in Greenville at the time, the police and the prosecutor speculate she could have disguised herself and made an overnight round-trip bus ride to Barkley Cove, lured Chase to the fire tower during the brief layover, and killed him. With only the unfounded theory, the missing necklace, and the fisherman's testimony, Kya is found not guilty.
Kya and Tate spend the rest of their lives together. Kya publishes illustrated nature books, and is frequently visited by Jodie and his family. While boating through the swamp in her 70s, she imagines seeing her mother returning to the cabin. Tate finds Kya lying dead in the boat at their dock.
Boxing up Kya's things, Tate finds a passage in her journal saying that to protect the prey, sometimes the predator has to be killed. It is accompanied by a drawing of Chase. Tate then finds the missing shell necklace, which he throws into the marsh water.
Cast
- Daisy Edgar-Jones as Catherine "Kya" Clark
- Jojo Regina as young Kya
- Leslie France as mid-70s Kya
- Taylor John Smith as Tate Walker
- Luke David Blumm as young Tate
- Sam Anderson as mid-70s Tate
- Harris Dickinson as Chase Andrews
- Blue Clarke as young Chase
- Michael Hyatt as Mabel Madison
- Sterling Macer Jr. as James "Jumpin'" Madison
- Garret Dillahunt as "Pa" Jackson Clark
- Ahna O'Reilly as "Ma" Julienne Clark
- David Strathairn as Tom Milton
- Eric Ladin as prosecutor Eric Chastain
- Logan Macrae as Jeremy "Jodie" Clark
- Will Bundon as young Jodie
- Bill Kelly as Sheriff Jackson
- Jayson Warner Smith as Deputy Joe Purdue
Production
Development and casting
Media outlets reported in March 2020 that Lucy Alibar had been hired to adapt the film adaptation of Delia Owens' best-selling novel Where the Crawdads Sing for Hello Sunshine and the newly formed 3000 Pictures label of Sony Pictures. In July, Olivia Newman was hired to direct. In January 2021, it was announced that Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson would join Daisy Edgar-Jones in the cast. That March, David Strathairn and Jayson Warner Smith joined the cast. In April, Garret Dillahunt, Michael Hyatt, Ahna O'Reilly, Sterling Macer Jr., and Jojo Regina were also added, and in June 2021, Eric Ladin was cast.
Filming
Principal photography took place from March 30 to June 28, 2021, in New Orleans and Houma, Louisiana.
Context and title
Owens, a zoologist, grew up in Thomasville, Georgia, and mostly lived in or near wilderness. She received a Bachelor of Science in zoology in the University of Georgia and a PhD in animal behavior from the University of California, Davis. She has stated that she knew she had always wanted to be a writer however she decided on a career in science. After spending most of her life as an academic exploring African wildlife behavioral ecology, Owens released her debut novel, Where the Crawdads Sing, in 2018; it topped The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2019 and The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2020 for 32 weeks. According to critics, the book drew considerable inspiration from Owens' life.
The title of the book (from which the film takes its title) is a reference to a phrase told by Kya's mother. Crawdads (crayfish) cannot "sing", but when Kya's mother often encouraged her to explore the marsh, she would say, "Go as far as you can–way out yonder where the crawdads sing." When Tate also used the phrase, she asked him the meaning and he replied, "Just means far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters." Delia Owens was inspired to use the phrase because her own mother had used it when she was little.