Echo Valley

The telltale sign that this was a great movie was the range of emotions I felt throughout. Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney give incredible performances, along with the supporting actors. They truly make you feel frustrated at times, angry at other times and super sad along the way.

Julianne Moore is every enabling parent that you can never talk sense into, and Sydney Sweeney is every junkie kid that puts substance of use ahead of their family. Both characters are just as frustrating and heartbreaking as anyone who's watched this play out in real life.

And although the movie starts out a little slow, there's a twist in the middle that works toward another twist at the end that's even more surprising.

Definitely worth putting on your watch list.

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.

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.

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.

One of the greatest actresses in the world, really digging into her part as the mother of a wayward daughter. You believe her in the first half as she tries to cover up evidence and a body. Then things go sideways and a little dopey. The second half could've used a serious rewrite. Just didn't buy it. No spoilers. I'm giving this a 7 because Julianne Moore gives a world class performance and you believe it. Sydney Sweeney is also great as the junkie daughter. The very last scene was so predictable that it made me cringe. But overall it's a good watch because of the two leads. Gleeson is also believable as the dealer. Second half could've used a rewrite.