How far would you go to protect your child? How far would this love take you over the edge?
Echo Valley is a deep dive into the motives of a protective mother, the lines she will cross to save the one she loves.
Just what the movies needed, another psychological thriller to dig their teeth into. Focusing on addiction and a mother’s love – seen many times before – Echo Valley looks promising with its cast. Oscar winner Julianne Moore leads the team, bringing her charm to every role she plays, along with Sydney Sweeney, Fiona Shaw, and Domhnall Gleeson. Leave the talented cast and see that the screenplay was written by Brad Ingelsby, the mind behind the critically acclaimed series Mare of Easttown, and directed by BAFTA-winning director Michael Pearce, audiences will be eager to watch. The overall first glance, provided even by the trailer itself leads one to believe this could be the next best thriller. Though it heads straight to AppleTV+ and becomes a little chaotic along the way, Echo Valley keeps audiences on the edge of their seats through each unexpected twist along the way.
In Echo Valley, secluded mother Kate (Moore) lives life the best she can on her horse ranch, only nine months after losing the love of her life, Patty (Kristina Valada-Viars). Her day-to-day rituals – enabling her to get out of bed each morning – are suddenly interrupted when her troublesome, drug-addicted daughter Claire (Sweeney) shows up asking for money. At first convinced that Claire is sober, she runs away again, and it is when she returns covered in someone else’s blood that Kate understands there is something darker at play. After dealing with Claire’s problem, Kate begins to unravel her daughter’s true scheme, which leads her to a self-discovery: how far she will go to protect her child.
A saddened, lonely, grief-filled widow, Moore’s portrayal of Kate has continued to prove to the world that her talents will never fade or falter. Alongside Moore, Sweeney’s Claire is a role that gives her the purpose of recycling emotion from the familiar Cassie Howard in Euphoria, and it works. The strain in their mother-daughter relationship is there and even makes the audience uncomfortable at times through their connection with the character of Kate. In Kate, the audience sees the one-sided love the mother has for her daughter, even when she is under the influence. In Claire, the hate and anger she feels for her mother, and even the sorrow and regret she feels once she comes down off her high and realizes what she’s done. The traits these two women would feel, should they be real people and not fictional characters, are felt in the audience due to the skilful portrayal by both Moore and Sweeney. Yet, with so much potential, Sweeney’s skills are hidden once Claire disappears with all too much of the film yet to finish, giving the audience less time to connect with her. Moore’s performance, however, just as intended, gives the audience the capacity for empathy and understanding. In some way, the screen time chosen for each actor provides exactly what the audience needs to connect with their characters and become more invested in their story.
As Kate goes through her daily life, audiences begin to understand how her wife’s passing truly affected her. Depressed, Kate mourns her lost wife, which leads to begging her ex-husband, Richard (Kyle MacLachlan), for funds to keep the farm afloat and the roof from caving in, something she has done many times before. Sadly, after this scene, Richard is introduced for one scene and then never seen again. This gives the audience a face to recognize when he is referred to, while reminding them that it is not his and Kate’s past we are interested in, but Kate’s present and future. Audiences are also privy to small moments between Kate and her lesbian friend Jessie (Shaw) as they laugh over wine, drunk dancing, and even dinner. A proper connection that the audience witnesses, not one that grows over time, but one that allows us to see how much one friend will do for another. Further spinning off the film’s idea of how great a lengths a mother would go to for her child, the relationship between the two friends also adds the element of the lengths friends will go for each other should they be truly the best of friends – a relationship that is almost similar in the state of one between a mother and daughter.
Choices made by Pearce through his direction and collaboration with cinematographer Benjamin Kračun heighten the suspense felt by the audience. Scene setting allows the viewer to understand Kate’s love for her ranch and also be privy to beautiful landscapes and the vast waters of both the lake and the marsh. Specific scenes are shot with such ambiguity that there is no specific interpretation he wishes for the audience to develop, but for each to decide on their own. Moments when Kate feels certain emotions, the camera will not always be directly on her, but provide a different perspective and change the narrative. Combining the skillful shots, the score seems almost nonexistent. As the viewer follows Kate along her path to potential destruction, there is no additional sound, not until it is required most for the best suspense. When it’s there, the audience knows it, and the audience feels it as well. Heightening emotions, tension, and everything else, all at the right time for the right amount of time as well.
While Echo Valley becomes slightly tangled up in its own plot, characters who were introduced once seem to have been completely forgotten, and as the genre has difficulty keeping a grasp of what it wants to be, it does manage to finish with a shocking twist. Audiences witness Kate go down a dark path to save her daughter, and ultimately herself. In ways, the ending of her story seems slightly rushed, though this may be due to the trauma she experienced in such a short time – yet everyone anticipates her happy ending and hopes for it either way. There is still something intriguing about Echo Valley in that it allows the viewer to get involved through Kate’s perspective and anticipate how far she truly will go.
For longtime fans of Julianne Moore or Fiona Shaw, and even younger fans of Sydney Sweeney, Echo Valley is an entertaining watch, nonetheless. Providing audiences with something new, another stellar performance from Moore, and deeper thinking into the power of a mother's love, director Michael Pearce and writer Brad Ingelsby created something truly distinct. Echo Valley is due for limited theatrical release on June 13, 2025, at the same time as it will be releasing digitally on Apple TV+.
Photos: Apple TV+
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