Kya Clark aka the marsh girl leaves nature-bound isolation to enter theatres (spoiler free)
In her bestselling novel Delia Owens spins a beautifully poetic tale of a girl abandoned by her family, growing up alone but not lonely, for nature is her constant companion. She learns to survive on her own, while coping with her status as social outcast, studying the wilderness and creatures around her and falling in love. Until a boy dies and the ´marsh girl´ is accused of murder.
Now actress and producer Reese Witherspoon, who helped the book gain popularity through her renowned literary club, has brought Kya Clark and her world alive on screen. The latter is brilliantly portrayed by Normal People´s Daisy Edgar-Jones, who skilfully conveys all the inner emotions and thought processes of her character initially described on the page. And where the movie is not able to bridge that gap through mere facial nuances, we hear Kya´s voice narrating from the off, framing the picturesque sceneries of the marshland in ever so picturesque words. Nature itself truly is the second protagonist of this romance and crime filled coming-of-age story, which director Olivia Newman wonderfully manages to capture on camera. From early morning boat rides across the calm blue waves of the lagoon, to sun-drenched reading sessions among bright green plants, kisses surrounded by up-dancing leaves and fireflies illuminating the dark. Similarly, now and again the costume choices offer an additional pop of colour to the aesthetic experience, in thorough 50s and 60s fashion. Whereas, the plot is greatly played out by a spot-on cast, besides Edgar-Jones ranging from Taylor John-Smith as Kya´s first love Tate, to Sterling Macer Jr aka her friend Jumpin and Harris Dickinson embodying the two-faced Chase, who finds his fate on the bottom of the fire tower. Just like Owen´s source material the movie keeps its audience guessing till the very – masterfully constructed – end, if the so called ´marsh girl´ in fact did kill beloved quarterback and womanizer Chase Andrews or if the town simply set off a witch hunt. Where the Crawdads Sing is an example of a rare phenomenon known as a successful book-to-movie adaptation, which not only stays faithful to the novel, but is able to embrace the story in all its cinematic vividness – with a Taylor Swift shaped cherry on top named Carolina, a song written especially for the movie.
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