Echo Valley

My Review- Echo Valley Apple TV My Rating. 6/10

Julianne Moore is the only reason I chose to watch this movie as I am seldom disappointed with her choice of movie roles however her fine performance in Echo Valley wasn't enough for me to have any emotional connection at all with this dysfunctional mother daughter saga.

Primarily because to quote Eve Arden's famous line from the classic 1945 mother daughter saga " Mildred Pierce " starring Joan Crawford as Mildred and her selfish self obsessed daughter Veda played by Ann Blyth .

"Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young." That's for sure! Now that was a classic I still adore .

The selfish unpleasant daughter in Echo Valley is Claire Garretson played by Sydney Sweeney a drug addict who returns home to torment her mother Kate Garretson played by Julianne Moore when she needs money for drugs.

However this time she's in real trouble with her dealer and boyfriend that drags her mother into a whirlpool of crime and mayhem.

I usually have compassion for movies or series about addiction that feature the eventual rehabilitation or at least the desire to turn their lives around.

Echo Valley however is just about total dysfunctional and manipulative characters with no redemption at all. It does effectively show the lengths both the addict and the parents of addicts will go to either to get drugs or in this mother's case to try a protect her daughter.

Brad Ingelsby who wrote Mare of Easttown which I loved wrote Echo Valley but in this case his story doesn't echo his previous success.

Despite a good cast that includes Fiona Shaw the story descended into implausible melodrama for this viewer.

Greetings again from the darkness. We should all be so fortunate to have a friend as loyal as Leslie, and we should strive to be wiser than Kate so that we don't ever have the need to test that friend's loyalty. Director Michael Pearce (ENCOUNTER, 2021) is working with a script from screenwriter Brad Ingelsby (the excellent "Mare of Easttown", OUT OF THE FURNACE, 2018), and a superb cast to deliver a thriller that offers both familiar territory and twists and turns in a film that is ultimately relatively entertaining to watch.

The film opens with a stunning overhead shot of a lifeless body floating in the middle of a tree-lined lake. We don't know who it is or the story of how it got there. Oscar winner Julianne Moore plays Kate, still in a grieving funk nine months after a tragic accident killed her wife Patty (Kristina Valada-Viars, "Chicago Med"), who is seen only in flashbacks and heard on saved voicemails. Kate manages to crawl from bed each morning and do just enough to keep her horses alive on the farm where her business is giving riding lessons. Since she's cancelled most of those lessons, she must grovel to her ex-husband (Kyle MacLachlan) so she can fix the sagging roof on her barn. The two argue about money, her state of mind, and their daughter ... whom dad describes as "sick".

It doesn't take long for us to understand how all the pieces of their argument fit together because daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney, "The White Lotus", "Euphoria") shows up at the farm, and we learn that her mother Kate is the ultimate example of an enabler. Claire has a long-standing drug problem as well as the corresponding mental issues. She knows her mother can be manipulated into doing just about anything for her. It doesn't take long for a couple of other players to enter. Ryan (Edmund Duncan) is Claire's drug-addled boyfriend, and Jackie (the ubiquitous Domhnall Gleeson) is their compelling drug dealer ... one who is out about ten grand due to the idiocy of Claire and Ryan.

Once the dynamics are in place, the twists and turns begin - none of which will be detailed here. You should know that it's all pretty suspenseful provided you are able to overlook a bit of creative stretching from a storytelling perspective. Fiona Shaw plays Kate's bestie Leslie (as mentioned in the opening paragraph), and what comes across clearly here is that this group of actors definitely elevate the material to the point where we actually care what happens to Kate, Claire, and Leslie. Ms. Moore excels in her grief, in her role as (overly) dedicated mother, and as a shrewd independent. Ms. Sweeney goes against her usual glam role and flashes some pretty impressive emotional range, while Mr. Gleeson nails the opportunistic drug dealer. It's kind of hard not to notice that the males in the story are all various shades of scumbags, save for the detective near the end.

Cinematographer Benjamin Kracun (PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, 2020) manages to capture both the beauty of the setting and the intensity and emotion of the personal interactions. Composer Jed Kurzel (SLOW WEST, 2015; THE BABDOOK, 2014) takes a unique approach to the score, preventing it from sounding like most suspense films. It seems probable that Mr. Ingelsby writing and Mr. Pearce's directing would have been better served in a limited series ... although this outstanding cast might not have happened. I found the film's ending somewhat less than satisfying, yet overall the entertainment value was fine.

The film will premiere globally on AppleTV+ on June 13, 2025.

Daughter is irremediably awful, overacted by Sydney Sweeney (even though she's a great actor I just didn't get into this role at all). The first half is just a torture show of bad daughter activities.

Movie picks up a bit in the last 2/3 but overall I just found the acting and characters flat and not really good enough to hold the screen. I get the point of the movie about grief and unconditional love bla bla bla, it just really didn't work for me.

The ending was pretty solid overall and this is an okay movie to kill a few hours, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Overall ok in every way but that's it. Solid 5/10. The end.

I gotta be honest... it was actually way better than I expected.

First of all, the movie is rage baity as hell (but I didn't mind it) Normally that kind of thing annoys me, but here it kinda worked. That's part of what kept me so locked in. It's like, you want to yell at the screen because you're actually into it. It's like a roller coaster of emotions,

Also, the acting was honestly impressive.

The movie is def not perfect. Some scenes dragged a little, and there were a few moments where the characters did things that didn't totally make sense unless you just accept that people sometimes act irrational when they're panicking. Also, the ending left me feeling a little weird. Not bad weird, just like... rage baity :D

Overall, Echo Valley isn't your typical big flashy movie, but it is something that pulls you in and doesn't really let go. It's messy, emotional, a little rage-inducing, and honestly, kind of thrilling in a quiet, twisted way. If you're looking for a wild ride that's not just action but also hits hard emotionally, I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot. It's not a perfect movie, but it's way more interesting than most of the stuff that comes out nowadays.

Julianne Moore is one of the few working actresses with both the talent and name recognition to elevate any mid-budget movie into a relatively successful and engaging experience. Put her in an aesthetically pleasing house with hardships, and she'll deliver a moving performance full of emotional depth and layered moral quandaries.

There's some immersion-breaking Apple product placement-now a norm for films produced by giant tech companies-but "Echo Valley" remains a suspenseful thriller with minimal violence. It's at its best and original when focusing on the ominous mother-daughter dynamic between Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney, whose performances fully sell the premise.