Where the Crawdads Sing

Daisy Edgar-Jones is really quite good in this adaptation of the Delia Owens story of a young girl left to her own devices in 1950s America. One by one her mother, siblings and finally her father abandon her to bring herself up. She takes to fishing for mussels in order to try to make ends meet, and is generally shunned by her community. Except, that is for her childhood friend "Tate" (a good effort too from Taylor John Smith) but when he leaves to go to college, she is exposed to the local Lothario "Chase" (Harris Dickinson). Turns out he is a bit of a wrong 'un for her, and when he is found dead at the bottom of a fire tower, she is prime suspect. What now ensues is a trial that provides us with retrospectives of the girl's childhood and her relationships whilst "Milton" (David Strathairn) organises her defence for a crime that might not even have been committed! The cinematography is gorgeous, the remoteness and intimacy of her existence is captured really well; as is the sense of isolation from her community as they look upon her as little more than an urchin. Smith portrays a decency to his character (he reminded me a lot of Joe Alwyn) and there are some touching performances from Sterling Macer Jnr. and Michael Hyatt as the closest thing the young girl has to family. Dickinson's accent is all over the shop, but he does manage to convince well enough as the rather duplicitous man who probably deserved his fate - however it actually happened. It is an interesting story, illustrating just how little by way of state infrastructure (or interference) there was in this young girl's life and how that empowered and endangered her in equal measure. DEJ delivers a strong and nuanced performance as the initially illiterate girl who was determined not be put upon and the story has a redemption that I found really fitting. The photography really does benefit from a cinema screen if you can.