Where the Crawdads Sing

 

......

 I didn't expect to enjoy this film: It has a plucky female character, an environmental theme, it was about the South of the USA, and it was a NYTimes Best Seller. All of which would make you expect a PC story that hits all the woke buttons.

The first clue that I might like it was that when I checked out Rotten Tomatoes, and found that the critics panned it but the audience loved it.

And indeed, when I watched it, I was surprised to find I enjoyed it.

It had all the things that I enjoy in movies: Good cinematrography, sympathetic characters, and a plot: 

Actually several plots: A love story (two boyfriends actually, one who is good and the other who is just an ordinary jerk). 

And the plot of how she worked to survive against all odds, and even found a way to pay  taxes on her family's land by becoming an author.

And of course, the main plot is a "who done it" story, where the Atticus Finch type lawyer gets our plucky girl declared innocent of murder of her rotten rapist.

Unlike many Hollywood films, where the female protagonist is cookie cutter pretty (and looks like every other actress even when they are of different races), the British actress playing Kya, Daisy Edgar Jones, was ordinary looking: not Hallmark channel pretty made to look "plain" but actually plain with the shy, flat affect of a character who is stoical in the face of hardship, but who is shy when around other people. 

The townfolk are seen as unsympathetic but not as evil cliches, just people involved in their own lives who don't see the outsiders or those who are different. 

The exception is the black shop keeper who buys shellfish from her: his wife quotes the Bible to him when he worries that befriending a white girl might get them in trouble. 

Yes, someone quotes the Bible without making fun of it. And Kya uses the family bible to prove she is the heir to own the land where her home is located. 

(I should explain to non Americans, in the US people traditionally write down the deaths and births and marriages in the front of their family bible, which is then passed down to the eldest child who continues the custom)

But the real "religion" here is love of nature and the care of the land and it's creature (this love of nature was done perfectly: As a country person would see it, in practical terms, not as PC woke city environmentalism)......

Behind this is the crime drama. Did sweet Kya kill the man who raped her, or was it an accident?

Yes, there are holes in the plot, but no worse than a film showing Galadriel swimming 300 miles back to middle earth, or Tom Cruise just happening to find a fully armed and ready F14 to steal.

so if you want to see a nice movie to distract you from worrying if the FBI might show up to steal your cellphone because you pray the rosary and once bought a pillow from the my pillow guy, there are better ways to do it.

I give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars.