Where the Crawdads Sing

Gracie, our 15-year-old Maltese. She rules the roost!

I have to say that my husband is the absolute best! He wanted to schedule a weekend away for our anniversary, and if it wasn’t for our very old, very spastic Maltese, he would’ve been successful, too. Sometimes, you have to make sacrifices for your kids—even if they’re the canine variety.

Instead, he suggested a date night. We don’t often go to movies, because really, is there anything worthy of the price of two tickets? We’d already seen Top Gun, which was more of a nostalgic experience for me (and yes, worth the money, especially in IMAX). Still, I thought it couldn’t hurt to check the local theater listings, even if my expectations were low. And then I saw it! How could I have forgotten that one of my favorite books was adapted for the big screen? Where the Crawdads Sing has been in theaters for two weeks, but being focused on house guests and catching up on writing, I was clueless.

Now here’s just one of the gazillion reasons Chris is the best husband. I mentioned wanting to see it, and without hesitation, he was on board. Although he may not admit this, I think he sees the idea of celebrating our anniversary as a wife-thing. Happy wife, happy life. He usually prefers movies that have action, adventure, and possibly a cowboy or two. An abandoned girl in the Carolina swamp is not his idea of a fun time, but he was a good sport.

It’s hard to jump into the movie without sharing a few details about the author (Delia Owens) and the book. First, Where the Crawdads Sing was her debut novel, released in 2019. It made the New York Times Fiction Best Seller List in 2020 for thirty-two consecutive weeks (in part thanks to Reese Witherspoon’s endorsement.) Can I just say, this is daunting for an author? First book out, and it’s a huge hit. I should’ve been so lucky.

But Reese Witherspoon notwithstanding, luck had little to do with it. We’re not talking about poorly written (in my opinion) best sellers like Twilight or Fifty Shades of Gray. Where the Crawdads Sing is deserving. Not only is it beautifully written, bringing the South into the hearts of the readers, but it’s rich metaphors of nature help to make the Carolina swamp a character as well as the setting.

This should really come as no surprise, however, since Delia Owens has a PhD in animal behavior and was previously published in several journals and articles about her work in this field. She’s lived her life doing the research for this book. If you dig deep enough, you’ll also find that she is connected by her ex-husband and his son to the murder of a poacher in Africa. Actually, you don’t have to dig deep; I’ll just link it here.

If I were reviewing the novel (which for some crazy reason I didn’t do), I’d give it five stars—or more, if I could. It was one of those books I could not put down. Fortunately, I did not look at movie reviews before seeing Where the Crawdads Sing. It didn’t do nearly as well as the book, which is to be expected. Have you ever seen a movie based off a book given a stellar review? But even so, if I read the reviews, I would have gone in with critic-jaded eyes.

I enjoyed the movie (and so did Chris!) Was it as good as the novel? No. But how could it be? My son, who’s been adapting novels into screenplays, taught me the challenges of taking a three- to four-hundred-page book and whittling it down to a couple of hours. Each page of a screenplay is generally a minute of production. Unless viewers want to sit through a six-hour movie, something has to go.

The critics didn’t seem enthralled with the acting (except for David Strathairn as the defense attorney) and they didn’t find the story compelling. I tried to imagine that I hadn’t read the novel to see if the movie would have stood on its own merits, but it’s hard to know. I guess I’m just not that imaginative. To be honest, I often find that I don’t agree with movie reviews. I’ve seen some critics rave over a movie that I wanted to walk out on, and others they disliked that are favorites. Pretty Woman comes to mind. Sometimes, I think critics are looking for something the rest of us don’t care about anyway—or they’re just jaded and snobbish.

The worst part of seeing this movie was having to sit through the thirty minutes of trailers for upcoming features. It was horrifying to see what people are willing to view. And not just view but pay for. Dark, violent, evil…give me a couple episodes of Andy Griffith any day!

I want a movie to be a pleasant experience where I connect with the characters enough to be rooting for them. Even though I knew the ending of Where the Crawdads Sing, I still rooted for Kya and Tate. I still hurt for the little abandoned girl and gritted my teeth at the violence she had to put up with as both a child and an adult. I would highly recommend this movie—but whether you see it or not, be sure to read the book. It’s a definite winner!

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