THE STORY – Kate, who is struggling to make peace with her troubled daughter, Claire, learns just how far a mother will go to try to save her child.
THE CAST – Julianne Moore, Sydney Sweeney, Domhnall Gleeson, Fiona Shaw, Edmund Donovan, Albert Jones, Kyle MacLachlan & John Kenton Kramer
THE TEAM – Michael Pearce (Director) & Brad Ingelsby (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 104 Minutes
The first thing Julianne Moore’s Kate sees when she opens her eyes every morning is cracks in her ceiling. This marks the beginning of 104 minutes of fractures in Kate’s relationship with her daughter, Claire (Sydney Sweeney), that “could collapse any day now,” just as she is told of the roof in her home. “Echo Valley,” the new film on Apple TV+ from director Michael Pearce and writer Brad Ingelsby (“Mare Of Easttown“), plays with imagery and metaphor at every turn to reflect the events.
Whether this is a strong narrative device or a heavy-handed, ill-advised attempt at a more profound reflection is up for debate. As much as this story shows us the complexities in Kate and Claire’s relationship through seemingly mundane plot details, it also finds ways to hit us over the head with it. This can be seen when the pair go swimming, and Kate speaks of the regret she saw in a short story Claire wrote about a mother losing her child. It’s a moment that feels like the writing is speaking too directly to the viewer, with a bit of a nudge-nudge-wink-wink. We also see this when grief is expressly mentioned. There is no doubt that audiences will have much to say about another thriller addressing regret and grief without bringing anything new tot he table. What is unfortunate here is the potential to have a far subtler tale, reflecting on both loss and unconditional love from a mother to her child and the flip side of the concept that is so often thought of as a warm ideal expected by society. Some intriguingly complex work is being done here with this relationship, but the plot’s bluntness frequently unravels it.
The mother-daughter relationship is the story’s through-line and it’s compelling because it takes an honest yet uncomfortable look at the lengths a parent is willing to go to for their child. Here, we witness an extreme case that is used to highlight this particular truth of parenthood. In the beginning, we see Kate deal with the loss of her wife, holding onto the farm where they lived together. She goes to such extremes to hold onto it, such as asking her ex-husband for money for repairs to keep it afloat. By the film’s conclusion, we see Kate willing to destroy the very barn she was desperate to save to protect herself and her daughter. In these events, it becomes clear just how much Kate wants to hold onto the memory of the daughter she once knew.
The representation of addiction in “Echo Valley” is pretty scattered. As mentioned, it’s being used as a device, but in this case, it is employed to villainize Claire and Ryan in a way that feels like a caricature. Because Claire’s addiction is being utilized as a tool to make her seem like an impossible daughter to get to the meat and potatoes of the story, there is care put into Kate’s character development and how she interacts with her daughter, but less nuance is found in the portrayal of Claire and her addiction here. A significant piece of this parent-child relationship is in the details of Claire’s addiction and in its ability to make a person completely unrecognizable. Still, it flies very close to the sun in its oversimplification. Claire threatens to rip her mother’s hair out, as well as attempting to drive the dog so far away it won’t be able to find its way home, something many viewers will find the most despicable moment of the film (Note: there are quite a few threats of animal abuse in this). This story takes these elements to the extreme of having Kate take advantage of her mother’s love and a soft spot for her to cover up the murder. While some of this can feel intense and unrelenting, it’s an effective way to prove the film’s point. It’s easy to get lost in the brutality of Claire’s overreaction, but this is a device to show a heightened end of the spectrum. It begs the question, in the case of parenthood, how far are you really willing to go for your child, regardless of how they treat you?
This starts to escalate at about the halfway point, when Claire wants money to get her boyfriend, Ryan, out of trouble with what seems to be a run-of-the-mill drug deal gone wrong. Claire is wronged by her abusive boyfriend, throws out his stuff in retaliation, and, in the process, accidentally tosses out drugs worth a lot of money. Of course, this (thankfully for the plot) ends up becoming much more, but in the moment, what’s most shocking is how Claire treats her mother. Watching this play out, it’s jarring to witness someone hurt another person who cares for them so much. From here, the story builds further, having Claire trick her mom into helping cover up a death caused by her boyfriend. This whole plot becomes immediately suspicious when the body is revealed to be wrapped up and in the car. How was Claire able to do this herself? Would she be strong enough to drag a body up into her car and perfectly wrap it? Another moment of unbelievability arrives in the finale, when the entire plan to save the horses from the burning barn hinges on Jackie driving away as soon as the fire is lit.
The performances from Moore, Sweeney, and Domhnall Gleeson are all predictably impressive, with Moore’s Kate given the most thought in the writing. From her slow starts each morning getting out of bed to her denial of her daughter’s health, her character is carefully thought out. While Claire isn’t given quite the same treatment, largely disappearing in the third act, Sweeney’s performance as Claire is still strong. Her enthusiasm to take on horror and thriller roles, a genre often criticized, throughout her career has been admirable, and we get to see more of that here. Claire is a unique role for Sweeney, as she brings a new, relaxed, and rugged nature to the part. In watching this, it’s noticeable how many roles Sweeney has taken on that lead with anxiety. “Euphoria” and “Reality” are examples of this. Here, she is not only more laid back, but there is also an openness to simply letting go and shouting if the scene calls for it. She commits fully, leaning into the discomfort. Gleeson also gives an impressive, unique performance. Often known for his more nerdy and/or subdued characters in “Ex Machina” and “About Time,” Gleeson is quite scary in this role, bringing a domineering physicality and a creepily friendly facade that is all around unsettling.
The only memorable technical aspects here are some of the shot choices by cinematographer Benjamin Kračun. There are quite a few GoPro-style shots of objects being moved. The camera is also often placed to appear as if it is someone spying from a distance, giving it a creepy quality to aid in generating its tension. When Kate drives home to see Claire outside with Ryan, Kate gets out of the car, and the camera remains inside it, tracking the scene from the vehicle. Often, in moments of havoc, the camera shifts to a shaky handheld aesthetic. At the very least, these choices come together to bring something interesting to look at and assist in communicating the film’s tone.
All of this wraps up to tell a disheveled story where subtlety should have won out but doesn’t. There is the promise of something to chew on in the mystery of the mother-daughter relationship; however, too much of the runtime is spent on directly telling the audience what it’s trying to say. Despite feeling disjointed, there are some solid performances here, and the allure of the complicated central relationship with a backdrop of a murder mystery is enough to say it’s entertaining, and if that’s your style, then it’s worth the watch.
