.png)
Mystery/Thriller
PG-13
Stars: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, David Strathairn
Director: Olivia Newman
Writers: Delia Owens (based upon the novel by her) Lucy Alibar (the screenplay)
Book or movie? Once I’ve read a book that has been made into a movie, I often have to ask myself which one I liked best? This can be difficult because they are different vehicles with their own strengths and weaknesses.
I read the award-winning novel about three years ago and enjoyed it so much I thought it would make a wonderful movie because there was so much of the story I could actually visualize.
So, when I heard Hollywood was making a movie of the story, I couldn’t wait to see it and I wasn’t disappointed when I saw it a few days ago. The film is true to the book in the telling of the story. However, one of the big differences is that the book goes deeper into some of the character’s backgrounds and experiences. This is a shortcoming of the movie and for someone who hasn’t read the book, it might make the decisions the cast make seem abrupt and confusing. However, the movie does offers beautiful scenes of the swamp land of North Carolina and is still an engaging story.
After I saw the film, I read some of the professional reviews and I was surprised at how negative some of them were. It made me wonder if the people doing the reviews actually read the book. The one thing they seemed to agree on was the strong performance by Daisy Edgar-Jones who plays Kya, the young “Marsh Girl” who is the center of the film. Edgar-Jones is actually British, so it is to her credit that she gives a very realistic portrayal of the shy, uneducated, Southern girl.
The professional reviewers said the film lacked “substance or suspense” it was “tepid and lacked suspense.” Perhaps it’s because I read the book that my mind let me fill in the suspense, but I enjoyed the movie. I did notice that on “Rotten Tomatoes” the film critics gave the movie a 35 but the movie fans that went to see the film gave it a 96. That is a big difference!!!! Since the movie got very little promotion, I suspect the big difference in the numbers might be that the people who went to see the movie were people who also read the book. That is just my guess. Book or movie? You be the judge.
Official Trailer for Where The Crawdads Sing
Comments