Firmly in the realm of B-movies, director Michael Pearce’s (Beast, Encounter) Echo Valley is certainly elevated by the work of terrific and compelling actors, who consistently pick up the slack in Brad Inglesby’s screenplay. Although the film has a few interesting twists, the plot is fairly familiar.
We meet Kate (Julianne Moore) shortly after the death of her wife, living alone on a horse ranch where she provides riding lessons to local families and ekes out a living. She still has to reach out to her ex-husband (Kyle MacLachlan) when she needs large sums of money for home repairs (at one point, we see her go to his home when her roof needs fixing). The two share a troubled daughter, Claire (Sydney Sweeney), who they rarely see except when she needs money for drugs or a place to stay when she’s temporarily broken up with her addict boyfriend Ryan (Edmund Donovan). Kate is something of a pushover when it comes to Claire, so when she shows up on her doorstep after her most recent breakup, Kate eagerly takes her in.
As it happens, Claire tossed all of Ryan’s possessions out before she left, which unfortunately includes a large stash of drugs that he was going to sell, so now he owes his supplier, Jackie (Domhnall Gleeson) a substantial amount of money. This realization sends Claire into a spiral, and naturally she comes to her mother for help, which she can’t afford to provide. Claire goes ballistic, shows her mother what a true monster she can be, and leaves with Ryan, hoping to escape Jackie. But a few days later, Claire returns with blood on her, saying that she and Ryan got in a fight and she accidentally killed him and she needs help hiding the shrouded body. Claire does what she can to help, and this sets off a chain reaction of shocking and occasionally surprising events that puts her in direct conflict with Jackie, who blackmails her when he discovers what she’s done.
In this age-old tale of misguided love, sacrifice and ultimately survival, the performances are top-notch, especially from Moore and Gleeson, who are pitted against each other but must ultimately work together to get what they both want. But Sweeney's portrayal of the manipulative Claire is also quite good, especially when she goes into full-rage, drug-addict mode. There’s also a terrific supporting performance by Fiona Shaw as Kate’s best friend Leslie, who knows the pain Kate is going through even before Claire shows up and wants to be as supportive as possible. The way the film wraps up is fairly clever and maybe a bit too clean, but it’s the ending we want, so it’s forgivable.
In truth, I was so wrapped up in Echo Valley’s exceptional performances that I didn’t let its familiar plot beats lessen my enjoyment of it. Director Pearce has crafted a beautiful looking film and gives us a true sense of place and this time in Kate’s life before all hell breaks loose. There are points where the film drifts into thriller mode, and those are handled nicely, without delving into a ridiculous amount of action or extreme behavior. I suppose if you’re looking for something a little more adult, character driven, and generally different than what’s in theaters now, you could do much worse.
The film is now streaming on Apple TV+.
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