Where the Crawdad’s Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing is a movie that emphasizes savagery, independence, and
survival. Kya is known as the "marsh girl" and stands out from her neighbors due to her
strong connection to the natural world. Her family has abandoned her, the town isolated
her, there is very little kindness in Kya's world. Starting at age six, Her family left one by
one, her controlling father was the last person to depart forcing her into social isolation.
She learns to hunt and cook in order to physically survive. There seem to be only two
people who are truly kind to her, Mabel and Jumpin' who run the local general store and
buy mussels off of Kya. Tate, a local boy who briefly educates her before he too departs. Kya
uses her understanding of nature to analyze interpersonal interactions and holds onto the
delusion that all mothers will eventually return. Eventually accused and found not guilty of
the murder of Chase, who "fell" to his death through an open Fire Tower trap door, we feel
that Kya can finally find some peace in her life. She also makes comparisons to nature in an
effort to understand her doomed relationship with village heartthrob Chaser. There must
be some surprises in a decent murder mystery for it to be satisfying, and Where the
Crawdads Sang is no exception.

With much of the story told in flashback, we learn how 'Marsh Girl' Kya Clark after
being left alone to fend for herself was befriended by a compassionate black couple who
owned a small general store in Barkley Cove, North Carolina, Kya managed to mature into a
productive young woman with a passion for nature and a talent that allowed her to earn an
income that eventually paid the back taxes on land handed down to her family through
generations. Compressed to a movie running time of just over two hours, I had some
trouble reconciling the adult Kya's sophistication in both appearance and intelligence, given
the lack of opportunity in a backwater environment, so that seemed inadequately dealt
with.

As the story draws to an end, my anticipation for how the revelation was made is
what really intrigued me. Upon Kya's passing after living a full life to a ripe old age, her first
lover and husband Tate discovers to his horror that the woman he married was more than
capable of murder. With that revelation, one must harken back to Attorney Milton's closing
argument, making the case that she couldn't have possibly killed Chase Andrews, given her
circumstances at the time traveling back and forth to neighboring Greenville, in disguise,
without anyone noticing her movements, and leaving no evidence at the scene of the crime.
Apparently, she did so without fanfare while keeping her secret from authorities and loved
ones over the years. One has to question however, how thorough the local sheriff's
investigation could have been if they couldn't find the evidence hiding in plain sight.

Additionally, what makes the story interesting, of course, is the question of Kya's
guilt or innocence in the death of her purported fiancé Chase Andrews. She's linked to his
death because of how their relationship soured when it was revealed that in fact, he was
already engaged to one of the town's upper-class women. This is where the story gets a bit
sticky for my taste, since there is no conclusive evidence to even come close to determining
that Kya had a hand in killing him. There isn't even conclusive evidence that the man was
murdered, considering the scene of his death and the probability that it was an unfortunate
accident. As Kya's attorney, Tom Milton makes a credible defense of Kya that leads to her
exoneration of a crime, even if we're left uncertain that a crime may have been committed

A good murder mystery has always appealed to me, especially if it occurs in a unique
setting. The majority of the time, we see them taking place in large cities where the criminal
has many options for hiding, but I believe the perfect location for one is in a small
community shut off from the rest of civilization. This makes narrowing down the murderer
a more intriguing task because everybody in this close-knit community where everyone
knows one another can be a suspect. In "Where the Crawdads Sing," the marshlands of
North Carolina take center stage as the setting for a fascinating yet straightforward murder
investigation that makes it possible for some inventive locales to be visited.
 What I thought would be a movie solely about a murder case turned out to be a
character study of Kya Clark, the main character in the plot. The film indeed begins with the
aforementioned murder, but it quickly takes a backseat as the audience is instead shown
the difficult life the main suspect has led up until this point. We are given a detailed look at
several events in Kya's life, from her early forced independence to falling in love with a boy
who supports her education, that helped shape the kind of person she is today. As a result,
we gain a better understanding of the type of person she is at her core, which makes her
trial for murder considerably more interesting to watch.

"Where the Crawdads Sing" has pretty much everything you might want from a
murder mystery set in an odd location, making it the perfect movie to see on a free day.
Although I haven't read the original novel, I can tell from my study that this adaptation is
faithful to the source material. In any case, I'm willing to declare the movie a success as long
as it keeps me engaged the entire time and is enjoyable enough to do so. Personally, I had a
great time seeing this movie. It was romantic and sincere. I will admit that the storyteller
may have been a little deceptive because they spent the entire movie winning your
sympathies before revealing a really gruesome truth.