Looking to lure in lovers of The Notebook, this 1960s-set melodrama from director Olivia Newman is based on the 2018 novel by Delia Owens. With sales of 12 million copies and counting, it’s one of the bestselling books of all time. Normal People fans will note the presence of rising British star Daisy Edgar-Jones, who bags her first major leading film role following indie body horror Fresh, which went straight to Disney+ earlier this year.

Edgar-Jones plays Kya Clark, who has endured a lonely and poverty-stricken existence after being abandoned as a child (Jojo Regina plays the young Kya, with Garret Dillahunt appearing as her violent alcoholic father, who drives off her ma and siblings before departing himself). Despite her sorrows, which include her pariah-like local status, Kya has established a formidable connection to her North Carolina marshland home, lovingly documenting the area’s flora and fauna, and scratching together a living digging for mussels.

Taylor John Smith stars as Tate, an acquaintance from childhood who grows to be something more while Harris Dickinson plays the town’s former star quarterback Chase, whose body is discovered at the foot of a fire tower. With Kya accused of the crime, Tom (David Strathairn) is the lawyer desperately trying to clear her name.

Where The Crawdads Sing combines numerous promising elements (a murder mystery, courtroom drama, fraught romantic entanglements, a modern witch-hunt and simmering social tensions) to underwhelming, sometimes unintentionally comical effect. It shows little interest in tapping into the inherent darkness of the material, instead delivering a very superficial take on some weighty issues, with plot holes, paper-thin characterisations and baffling behaviour confounding matters.

Seductively shot by Polly Morgan, the film’s intoxicating, almost dream-like appearance helps you understand Kya’s love for the marshland and her disinterest in casting her net any wider, despite her troubles. But quintessential English rose Edgar-Jones is fundamentally miscast here: her healthy glow, freshly washed appearance and air of refinement never quite tally with Kya’s hard-knock life. Fans of the Nicholas Sparks school of soft-focus heartache may well be satisfied, yet many will be frustrated by a film that’s crying out for some credibility.

Where The Crawdads Sing is in cinemas now.