You’re not going to get the resolution you want. You should know that going in. While you may well get the conclusion you want, you will not get the resolution you want. The film opens with a dead body. The body belongs to local football hero and stud, college aged Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson). He died in shallow swampwater. There might have been foul play. In a film like this where the death dominates all the action that comes after, one would expect a re-creation of the fatality to be either the climax or the epilog. There is no re-creation here. Oh you’ll find out what happened, more-or-less, But the idea of committing such to film in … a film … seems lost on the director and producers. Oh well.
Did the death have anything to do with the “Marsh Girl?” Kya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones), you know, the chick who lives alone -in the swamp- and had an intimate relationship with Chase? As she’s the only human resident for miles in any direction, she is immediately blamed, jailed and tried. What we need now is a movie that’s 85% background and 15% “What happens now?” I guess we needed a reason to care about the Marsh Girl before we cared about … the Marsh Girl.
The Clark family lived in a surprisingly well-kept, surprisingly hygienic swamp shack. I mean, seriously, you listen to this girl’s background and then tell me why her clothes are clean and her teeth are white, ok? The Clarks lived in a bog. There were six of them, I think, but the only one who mattered was Pa (Garret Dillahunt). In between fishing excursions, Pa’s main hobby was drinkin’ ‘n’ beatin’. First Ma decided she had enough, and left. Then two sisters left. Then the brother left. And then it was just Pa and Kya, which was great because “hey, more grits for me!” Unfortunately, Pa washed down every meal with a fifth of Jim Beam. And then he left, too.
As the preteen breadwinner of the household, Kya was forced to rise at dawn and dig for mussels until she had a sackful to sell to the local restaurateur. This kept her in swampboat gas money and grits … but I doubt very seriously any of it went to soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, or anything of that nature. Oh, and hey, good thing teenage girls who live in swamps never need a doctor or anything like that.
Dubbed “Marsh Girl” by the dickish public, Mya spends exactly one day in school before decidin’ she’s had enough of
that thar book learnin’. Despite growing up uneducated in rural swampland, Kya seems to have no opinion about how socialism is taking over the country or how Donald Trump has been a consistent victim of a media “out to get him.” Huh. Maybe that will be in the sequel.
It is truly amazing how far a horny boy will go to get some. That isn’t exactly how Kya’s relationships are presented, but … c’mon, man. Two separate teenage boys travel to bog country, by boat, in order to take a swing at that sweet, sweet Swamp Thang. The first is Tate (Taylor John Smith) who hides his libido pretty well for a while. The second is Chase as described above.
Jokes aside, I got into this movie. It was a little long, and it made two huge erroneous assumptions: 1) that we needed a murder trial to care about Kya and 2) that we could go without a visual of the fatal night in question … even though that moment controlled the action for the entire film. Bad assumptions aside, I did care about Kya. I wanted to see her succeed … or at least not get sent to the Big Shack for the murder of that douchebag. I was left curious enough to wonder if the original Delia Owens novel makes a better read than its visualization. Perhaps I’ll check it out.
A girl who lived near no road
Found a suitor to relieve her load
But this maiden’s curse
Seems a spell in reverse
For her “prince” turned into a toad
Rated PG-13, 125 Minutes
Director: Olivia Newman
Writer: Lucy Alibar
Genre: Swamplove
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Feminists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Abusive parents
