Nelson Edward

I'm no expert on North Carolina's coastal marshes, but I have spent a enough time in the Outer Banks and Wilmington areas to know that I have NEVER seen waterways in the state that look anything like the location chosen for "Crawdads," with moss-draped trees looking more like the Deep South — where the movie was actually shot. Adding to the geographic confusion is the fact that several storylines allude to characters heading to Asheville as if it was the nearest big city to the Eastern Carolina region, which it is not. Wilmington, Raleigh and Greensboro, to name a few, would be much closer and boast larger metro areas for folks in the Eastern part of the state to visit. Other than that, too many stereotypes abound — evil town jock, angelic Black couple, hick cops, perfect love interest, brilliant but downtrodden and misunderstood outcast — to make the story credible. I do like the nice work done by Daisy Edgar-Jones in the lead role, though, so all is not lost. David Straithairn really didn't have much help from the writers regarding his turn as a lawyer charged with shooting holes in the vapid prosecutor's paper-thin case, leaving, I'm afraid, despite its good intentions, a film that is a little too ambitious for its own — and the viewer's — good.