By George & Josh Bate
Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney represent two generations of powerhouse actresses. In the same way that Moore captivated audiences in the 1990s with roles in The Big Lebowski, Boogie Nights, and Magnolia, Sweeney has taken the film industry by storm in recent years and quickly ascended to become one of the most in-demand actors. Pairing the two together seems like a recipe for success, especially when the project is written by the scribe behind Mare of Easttown and produced by Ridley Scott. Unfortunately, strong lead performances fail to elevate Echo Valley beyond a mundane domestic thriller.
Echo Valley stars Moore as Kate, a mother grieving from the loss of her partner a few months prior. Taking care of a farm in southern Pennsylvania, Kate’s life proceeds monotonously until her daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney) emerges on the scene. Riddled by years of substance use, Claire puts her mother Kate’s unconditional love to the limits as her actions put them on a collision course with a dangerous drug dealer (Domhnall Gleeson).
After crawling past a sluggish start, Echo Valley employs an interesting structural approach to its narrative. Many similar thrillers have a single instigating incident that sets up the rest of the movie, but director Michael Pearce and writer Brad Ingelsby deviate from this tradition somewhat. While there is an instigating incident in Echo Valley, the film doesn’t stop there as the plot continues to shift and evolve with new development after new development far beyond what initially kicked everything into gear. This structure adds a flavor of unpredictability to the proceedings as it is unclear what new obstacle is going to be thrown in the mix first.
Conversely though, this structure means Echo Valley continues to reinvent throughout to the point where it loses sight of its solitary component that yields emotional investment. The relationship between Moore and Sweeney’s mother-daughter duo lies at the heart of the film and will resonate with anyone who has either had issues with substance use or been close to someone with issues with substance use. Despite the urges of Claire’s father Richard (Kyle MacLachlan) to no longer financially support Claire, Kate can’t come to terms with abandoning their struggling daughter. Even as Claire pushes the line of what’s acceptable far past its brink, Kate’s love for her daughter proves unwavering and heartwarming, in a troubled way.
As the story evolves and the stakes rise, Kate and Claire’s relationship strains even further. Claire finds herself in a disturbing predicament that sees her fall in the crosshairs of Domhnall Gleeson’s unsettling Jackie character, a drug dealer with a penchant for violence and getting what he is owed. Although the plot developments surrounding Claire and Jackie inject the film with much-needed energy, they never rise beyond serviceable engagement. Ingelsby crafts a tired story executed countless times prior that, while effective in raising the stakes, only barely reaches the threshold of entertaining. One can’t help but think how much more interesting Echo Valley would have been if it was stripped of its thriller elements and plot turns, instead honing in exclusively on the fractured bond between a mother with enduring love and a daughter derailed by substance use.
Eventually, Echo Valley enacts one reinvention too many as the very thing holding the film together – the relationship between Moore and Sweeney’s mother/daughter – suddenly falls by the wayside. The gripping push-and-pull between Moore and Sweeney, involving love, hate, distrust, and everything in between, evaporates and, in its place, comes a more substantial role for Domhnall Gleeson’s antagonist. Although no fault of Gleeson, who produces quite an understated and unsettling villain, his character’s growth in prominence coincides with Sweeney’s jolting disappearance from the movie and sees the film embrace itself as a routine thriller, rather than a potentially compelling familial drama. Even though it culminates in a clever and satisfying twist, the film fails to justify this abrupt shift and is left more disjointed as a result.
Salvaging Echo Valley from the depths of mundanity are Moore and Sweeney, who collectively make the film worth watching. Moore has portrayed a gamut of characters across her filmography, including various mother figures, and yet delivers a turn here that feels decidedly different than her prior work. Moore portrays grief and depression in subtle, more authentic ways as she keeps her performance grounded and never too expansive. Other actors may have approached this role by wearing their emotions overtly on their sleeves, but Moore manages to convey powerful emotions with more nuanced body language and facial expressions.
Sweeney, meanwhile, reveals another side to her acting repertoire in the film. The actress has played struggling or even unhinged characters before (look no further than her role as Cassie in Euphoria) and yet a young woman marred by substance use is novel territory for Sweeney. She does a superb job fluctuating in Echo Valley – fluctuating from daughter to enemy, from trustworthy to untrustworthy, and so on. In doing this, Sweeney deftly captures the emotional trauma and unpredictability that being close to someone with substance use problems fosters. She makes it easy for the audience to see how Moore’s mother character continues to find herself in this push-and-pull, unsure whether to help her daughter out or leave her to fend for herself. Even as her character is perplexingly pushed aside in the final act, Sweeney’s performance leaves a lasting impression and resoundingly showcases her on-screen versatility.
VERDICT: 5.5/10
Echo Valley teams up two generations of powerhouse actresses for a routine domestic thriller that fails to match the quality of its stars. A story that continues to reinvent itself infuses the film with a sense of unpredictability but eventually goes one step too far with a shift that strips it of its most compelling element. At its heart, director Michael Pearce’s movie is a story of a mother burdened by the downsides of unconditional love and a daughter whose struggles with substance use push this unconditional love to its limits. The film proves far more effective when simply letting Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney trade lines and convey the familial devastation that results from substance use, rather than when it operates more as a narrative-driven thriller. Even as the scenes trod along from a story that barely rises above surface-level engagement, Echo Valley is salvaged by the strength of its lead performances. Moore depicts grief and depression in a subtle, authentic, and powerful manner, while Sweeney deftly captures the emotional trauma and unpredictability that comes from substance use and resoundingly demonstrates why she is one of the industry’s most in-demand actors. Although let down by an unfocused and tired story, Moore and Sweeney alone make the film worth watching and will leave one wondering how compelling another team-up with decidedly more gripping material could be.