Echo Valley

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.

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.

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.

Kate (Julianne Moore) is dealing with a personal tragedy while owning and training horses in Echo Valley, an isolated and picturesque place, when her daughter, Claire (Sydney Sweeney), arrives at her doorstep, frightened, trembling and covered in someone else's blood.

Right from the off the film promises to be something good, there's just a vibe about it. As the story grows you think it's going to be all about her wasting her life on her daughter and coming to an untimely end because of her.

But after some skilful twists and turns we realise it was never the film we thought it was going to be. Moore is fabulous as the mother, and Sweeney sure shows her acting chops as the wayward daughter. Domnhall Gleeson is at his menacing best in this taut, surprising thriller.

I very much enjoyed it and give it a solid 7.