Where the Crawdads sing (4 Stars)

This film is based on a novel with the same name that sold over 15 million copies in four years, making it one of the best selling novels ever. Can a successful novel be translated into a successful film? That's always a gamble, but based on the preliminary box office figures the film has succeeded, though not to the same level as the book. Is that even necessary? Maybe the film will inspire even more people to buy the book.

The film begins in 1952. Catherine Danielle Clarke, nicknamed Kya, is the youngest of five children growing up in a cabin on the side of a marsh in North Carolina. Her father is abusive to his wife and his children. First her mother leaves home. Then her older siblings leave, one by one, until she's the only one left with her father. Eventually he leaves as well, so Kya is forced to fend for herself. School? She only spends one day in school, and then she drops out because the other children call her Marsh Girl and bully her. The nickname sticks with her all her life.

The next years are a game of hide and seek with the authorities. Several times social services attempt to take her away to an orphanage, but she wants to stay in her home. She's an intelligent girl who's able to fend for herself, even though she's illiterate. When she's in her mid teens she has a boyfriend who teaches her how to read and write. But he leaves for college and doesn't come back.

As a young adult she finally meets a man who wants to marry her. Or so he says. He's already engaged to someone else. One day the man is found dead, and Kya is the main suspect. Most of the film is a courtroom drama with flashbacks to Kya's earlier life. She's facing the death penalty, so her lawyer advises her to make a plea deal. If she pleads guilty to manslaughter she'll only be sentenced to ten years in prison. Kya insists that she's innocent and says she'll fight the case.

I can't say anything about the book, not having read it, but the film starts on a low key and gradually builds up momentum. For the first half hour I wasn't enjoying the film, but then it began to draw me in. I began to sympathise with Kya and her plight. It's terrible to see a girl grow up as an outsider with the whole of the world against her. But she survived. She held her head up high, and she refused to let herself become a victim of the prejudiced legal system.

I'm almost certain I'll enjoy the film more the second time I watch it. It's a film that deserves to be watched more than once.