Brief Story Line
Set in the year 1969, Kya/Catherine Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones - Fresh, Normal People mini series etc) who was referred by the townspeople as Marsh girl became the suspect of a murder investigation when the rich Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson - The Kingsman, The Darkest Minds etc) was found dead. Kya was assisted by local lawyer Tom Milton (David Strathairn - Nightmare Alley, Alphas TV series etc) to defend her case.
It was later revealed on the real story of Kya since her difficult childhood till her young adult years where she became close to the kind-hearted Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith - Blacklight, Sharp Objects mini series etc) and also Chase.
So what actually happened to Chase and what would happen to Kya? You can find out in this mystery drama movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As I already knew from the movie's category, I had anticipated that it would have lots of drama. And I also noticed it has a long duration which would likely make it a slow burn type. This movie started off quite brightly with the finding of the body of popular and rich Chase Andrews and it did not take long for the main suspect Kya to be found. Subsequently then the story was done in a lot of flash backs to show Kya's life story while interchanging with the current time in the courtroom.
During these flash backs moments the drama felt very strong but surprisingly to me it did not feel boring. Somehow the story of Kya was quite interesting to see and I really could not help to sympathize with what she went through since her childhood, especially coming from a broken family living in the swamp and being looked down by the towns people. I also like the character of Tate Walker from the beginning. However, there was no surprise on what happened to Kya as she grew up.
The mystery here was not very difficult and the courtroom scenes were not as much as I would have wanted. I guess the movie's focus had always been the story of Kya, her romance and journey to adulthood. Oh for those who are not aware, this film was based on best selling 2018 novel of the same title written by Delia Owens. It was directed by Olivia Newman and written by Lucy Alibar. I also noticed a familiar name of Reese Witherspoon as one of the producers.
The part that I quite enjoyed in here was the performance of Daisy Edgar-Jones who managed to portray this character perfectly to my opinion (she also received praise by critics). Aside from the names I mentioned above, there were also support characters such as the owners of convenient store Jumpin (Sterling Macer Jr.) and his wife Mabel (Michael Hyatt - Snowfall TV series etc), Kya's mother (Ahna O'Reilly) and father (Garret Dillahunt - Ambulance, Braven etc) plus few others. Btw, I thought the casting of Jojo Regina as young Kya was very good as she looked like younger version of Daisy (plus that small detail of left hand that made it even more convincing).
This movie was pretty much like what I expected with its slow revealing and a bit of unconventional ending. It was a bit melodramatic (might even be romantic) and the mystery was solved in a bit unexpected way but quite pleasing. I also felt that the film seemed to be aimed a bit more towards female audience (after reading more on the internet, it was indeed so). Personally to me this one is quite entertaining, though I think it is more suitable as TV movie as it would be more enjoyable to watch it from the comfort of our home rather than in the cinema especially with such long duration. So if you do not mind sitting in a theater for > 2 hours to watch this kind of movie, then you can give it a try as there is still one studio showing it as of today. Otherwise, you can always wait for it to be available via streaming later.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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