In the 1960s, a woman who grew up in the swamps of North Carolina, ostracized all her life by the local population, is framed for the murder of a young man with whom she once had an affair.
Posted at 1:30 p.m.
This film adaptation of Delia Owens’ best-selling 2019 novel is every bit like an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel. Same hyper romantic atmosphere, same classic approach to the narrative, same shimmering treatment on the visual level. Some will no doubt see qualities in it – we are in the cinema, after all – others will find it difficult to subscribe to this story drawn in too broad strokes.
Sometimes legal drama, often bluette, Where the Crawdads Sing (Where the crayfish sing) is first based on a trial in which Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is accused of the murder of a former lover. The story thus relates the particular life of a young woman who first had to survive in a hostile environment during her childhood (violent father, mother disappeared forever, dislocated family) to then learn to live alone in a dilapidated house. at the edge of a swamp, far from everything.
Director Olivia Newman (First Match), who signs here a first feature film for the big screen, obviously relies on the dramatic aspect of Kya’s story to provoke emotion, but she also insists a lot on the romantic aspect of the love life of the latter. . Courted by two young men (played by Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson), Kya is seen with her partners in a context where everything turns out to be perfect: the angle of the shot, the shadows, the reflections of the sun’s rays which – what a coincidence – appear at just the right moment on the water, the sky with its sublime colors… And then, as a result, these violins which make themselves heard a lot.
In other words, the director borrows a style reminiscent of an older way of making cinema, without even trying to avoid clichés, which are inevitable in the circumstances. For amateurs only.
Indoors
Drama
Where the Crawdads Sing (V.F.: Where the crayfish sing)
Olivia Newman
With Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson
2:05 a.m.