Echo Valley, 2025.
Directed by Michael Pearce.
Starring Julianne Moore, Sydney Sweeney, Domhnall Gleeson, Fiona Shaw, Kyle MacLachlan, Edmund Donovan, Rebecca Creskoff, Audrey Grace Marshall and Stella Chivee.
SYNOPSIS:
Kate is dealing with a personal tragedy while owning and training horses in Echo Valley, an isolated and picturesque place, when her daughter, Claire, arrives at her doorstep, frightened, trembling and covered in someone else’s blood.
Unconditional love from parents will help their children out of any jam. From director Michael Pearce, Echo Valley (penned by Mare of Easttown’s Brad Ingelsby, which should give an idea of the type of thriller this is), this thought process goes to infuriatingly absurd and stupid lengths, leaning into shock value without any real characterization. It’s gritty and thinks it’s tapping into something grounded and hard-edged, but it’s mostly eye-rolling at every turn. Then, there is an equally implausible plot twist that sets the story on a different course within what has already been established.
Here, that parent is an endlessly loving and easily manipulated mother, Kate Garretson (Julianne Moore), grieving the loss of her wife. This sad situation has also led to her shutting down horse riding lessons at her ranch. That’s not good, considering repairs on the home need to be made, and bills are piling up. Fortunately, her ex-husband (Kyle MacLachlan) begrudgingly hands over checks to assist with this (he seems to have remarried to a younger woman and started a new family, although nothing is learned about them as characters in their one scene that feels cut down from something larger) while also expressing disapproval of how often she lets their daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney) get some of that money and her way.
The primary reason this ticks him off is that Claire is a drug addict dating a terrible influence of a boyfriend (Edmund Donovan), dealing drugs for the psychotic Jackie (Domhnall Gleeson). It also turns out that Claire and Ryan argue a lot; in one instance, she dumps his personal belongings into a river. Among those belongings are drugs he is selling for Jackie, which puts both of them in his unhinged crosshairs.
This doesn’t stop Claire from seeing Ryan. Desperately craving a fix, Claire turns out to be a complete monster herself hatching in impromptu plan to take her mom’s dog away and let it loose in the wild (knowing full well it won’t be able to find its way home) if she doesn’t cave (she is standing her ground, for once) and hand over some money that’s totally not for drugs. Once a sweet, helping ranchhand and promising writer, this is what has become of Claire. The problem is that the movie cares so little about these characters that how she changes so drastically is more something viewers have to accept rather than understand.
That’s also not even the most deranged action Clare takes against her mother. Nevertheless, Kate refuses to let her daughter get into trouble, not just with Jackie, but also with another legal matter she finds herself involved in. On one hand, the performances of Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney are convincing, but that doesn’t stop the film from feeling like a far-fetched endurance test of how stupidly far one mother will go to protect her from her ungrateful daughter.
As mentioned, at a certain point, Echo Valley goes in a different direction with Kate trying to outsmart Jackie, while also reconnecting with one of her lesbian friends (Fiona Shaw). There is an airport novel trash quality that nonetheless makes it entertainingly watchable, regardless of how misguided it is. However, the film ends on an unearned moment that induces anger not only because of its ridiculousness, but also because nothing has been resolved in terms of characterization. The film should be lost and forgotten in a valley.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
