While the nature of adaptation requires compression and elision, the film dutifully tells the story that fans of the book will turn out to see brought to life on the big screen.
Based on Delia Owens’ wildly popular best-selling novel of the same name, “Where the Crawdads Sing” is ostensibly a story of struggle, survival and tenacity one where a young woman named Kya grows like a flower through concrete in a harsh 1950s and ’60s world, despite the best efforts of a callous and often cruel community. But it plays more like a glossy Nicholas Sparks-flavored melodrama than a tale that actually has any meaningful connection to the messy real world wetland or otherwise.