NOW STREAMING ON APPLETV+! Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney star as mother and daughter in this suspense drama about the lengths a parent will go to for their child. For fans of writer Brad Ingelsby, the film is reminiscent of his previous works, including Mare of Easttown and Out of the Furnace.
Kate Garretson (Julianne Moore), who lives on a horse ranch, is still in mourning over the death of her co-ranchhand’s wife. She constantly cancels riding lessons, so she relies on the generosity of her ex-husband, Richard (Kyle MacLachlan), for financial support. Richard can’t stand that Kate is still asking him for hand-outs and that their troubled, drug-addict daughter, Claire (Sydney Sweeney), who Kate has coddled, does the same whenever she does appear back in their lives.
After years of not seeing her daughter, Claire shows up at Kate’s doorstep, distraught. She and her toxic boyfriend, Ryan (Edmund Donovan) got into a fight where unbeknownst to her, she threw out a bag containing costly drugs that were to be sold. Now, Ryan and Claire are on the hook which brings an intimidating drug dealer, Jackie (Domhnall Gleeson) to collect. Kate realizes the gravity of the situation and offers up the money she borrowed from Richard.
As Kate has apparently solved Claire’s problem, another one arises regarding Ryan. During a camping trip and yet another fight, Claire admits to her mother that she accidentally killed him. Kate, as she has done in the past, tells Claire that she will handle it. Afterward, a curious Claire asks what became of the body and is told that the body was dumped in a lake near Echo Valley. From the aftermath, Kate begins to learn the truth behind Ryan’s death.
Sydney Sweeney portrays Claire, a troubled daughter whose return home sets off a series of dark revelations in Apple TV+’s Echo Valley.
“…about the lengths a parent will go to for their child.”
If you’ve seen the movies of Brad Ingelsby, you know there’s always a slow burn or mystery that dwells with a twist where a character must make an extreme choice. Echo Valley follows that same formula. It is also the fourth collaboration between Ingelsby and Scott Free, Ridley Scott’s production company.
The film almost could have been a play, with it primarily being shot in one location and having Hitchcockian vibes in the vein of Dial M For Murder. There is a nice reveal that I haven’t seen done like this or with these types of characters, where I wasn’t left disappointed. To execute this kind of mystery, there has to be enough intrigue, and Inglesby once again finds the balance.
Initially, for myself, the draw here was Sydney Sweeney, but Julianne Moore delivers more than the script, I would think it was Sweeney signing up to work opposite Moore.
Domhnall Gleeson is an actor who teeters on the edge of being geeky or downright evil. In the television show The Patient, he balanced both. When you watched him in the Star Wars movies, there was probably a bit more cheese to his General Hux character, but here he gets it right as Jackie.
If you have a subscription to Apple TV+ and, as a viewer, are looking to watch something as entertaining as a Lifetime movie but smarter, then Echo Valley is worth a try.
"…A nice reveal that I haven’t seen done like this…"
