Echo Valley Review: A Decent Thriller

Echo Valley may have interesting twists, but this thriller coasts by on the performances of Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney.

Things begin by giving us the chance to get to know Kate and Claire a little bit. Kate is in the midst of grieving the passing of her wife Patty (Kristina Valada-Viars) and juggling a struggling farm that she has neglected as a result. Her daughter, Claire, is a recovering addict who shows up at the farm one day, having ditched her boyfriend Ryan (Edmund Donovan) for good. So far, things seem normal, right? We spend some time with the mother and daughter as they reconnect and then Claire’s addiction rears its ugly head leading to her heated departure. The next time Kate sees her daughter, she is covered in her boyfriend’s blood. 

Moore and Sweeney are fantastic in Echo Valley, getting viewers invested in their characters and their mother/daughter bond. You get a sense of Kate’s grief and genuine desire to make up with Claire through Moore’s nuanced work. Sweeney on the other hand handles the complexities of playing a recovering addict with ease. It is not always going to be pretty and Sweeney fully accepts this, becoming unrecognizable as Claire. Seeing her play off Moore is the biggest highlight of the film as the two could easily pass as mother and daughter based solely on the passion of their performances. What we see has an intensity, but both actresses also convey the unspoken love which parents and children have at every turn.

This story is built around the notion of how far one would be willing to go as a parent to protect their child and Kate has obviously already done a lot for Claire. Her conversation with her ex-husband Richard (Kyle MacLachlan, who is genuinely wasted by Ingelsby) regarding the farm eventually turning into an argument over Claire is proof enough of this. When do you draw the line as a parent, can you, or does the love you feel for your flesh and blood take control of your decision making no matter what?

As things move along, Kate makes viewers ponder this with her every decision. This is an interesting angle to take on parenthood because we as humans often do not consider that our children did not ask to be here, and while they may be responsible for their own decision making after a certain point, parents still feel a natural duty to protect their children even at their worst. That feeling, combined with her grief and loneliness after losing Patty, is what causes Kate to do improbable things for Claire. After all, her daughter is all she has left along with the farm. 

With all this said, it is confounding how Echo Valley paints Sweeney’s character as a straight up villain for a couple of reasons. Most importantly because the film spends a great deal of time reestablishing the bond between Claire and Kate, getting you invested in them together, before throwing it all away for no real narrative reason at all. Claire exits stage right, leaving her mother to deal with the aftermath of that blood soaked evening and a local dealer named Jackie Lawson (Domhnall Gleeson).

Thus, the film loses what hooked most viewers in to begin with in the mother/daughter bond when it would have made much more sense to have them face this adversity together whether they both wanted to or not. Claire turning into the villain of what is now Kate’s story due to her addiction effectively makes her feel more like a stock character because there is no real care given to this issue after a certain point. From there, it becomes a crutch designed to move the plot forward while also giving Sweeney her chance to exit. 

This is where my true conflict with Echo Valley comes into play. I feel Kate’s story would have been better served with Claire in it and thus really leaning into the idea of those two reforming their connection fully as they work their way through a terrifying situation. What we get instead is a plot fit for Lifetime that I did not love but also cannot say I hated because of how great these performances are and some solid points made about grief and parenting.

Julianne Moore sells the fear of her situation but also allows viewers to see this vulnerable mother who would do anything to reclaim the image she has of her daughter, even if it appears to everyone that Claire is too far gone. Deep down, Kate believes her baby girl is still in there, and since she has already lost Patty, who passed away due to circumstances beyond her control, she will do anything to keep Claire safe. She talks through her grief and this entire situation with her friend, Les (Fiona Shaw). These two give us some of the most human moments of the film and are a welcome distraction from the rather corny direction this narrative has taken.

As menacing as Domhnall Gleeson can be as Jackie, his motivations are basic and his fate is almost comical. Seeing Gleeson and Moore try to outdo each other in their scenes which are ripe with tension uplifts a so-so screenplay to being decent enough. This journey may be a little rough but I eventually grew to appreciate this film for what it is, even though part of me wanted something else. 

There are a couple of interesting twists throughout this narrative which I, of course, will not spoil beyond the fact that they actually caught me off guard. I was pretty on edge for most of this thriller as a result so I give Brad Ingelsby credit. Benjamin Kračun also adds to the tension with his cinematography and provides some rather unnerving shots including one during a nightmare Kate has. Kračun leans into the scenic elements of this environment otherwise, giving audiences a sense of realism among all this chaos. 

Echo Valley is a film filled with highs and lows that winds up being just good enough because of its performances. Julianne Moore gives audiences an outstanding, incredibly human lead in Kate Garretson who shows us just how far a parent will go for their child. Sydney Sweeney will shake you to the core as Claire Garretson in one of her most interesting turns ever. Those two combine with their castmates to make a twist filled script that would not feel out of place on Lifetime into something better than it should be.

Echo Valley will be available to stream globally on Apple TV+ from June 13, 2025.

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