Echo Valley (dir. Michael Pearce)

by Jack Martin | Jun 13, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 104 mins

UK Distributor: Apple TV+

UK Release Date: 13 June 2025

WHO’S IN ECHO VALLEY?

Julianne Moore, Sydney Sweeney, Domhnall Gleeson, Kyle MacLachlan, Fiona Shaw, Edmund Donovan, Rebecca Creskoff

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Michael Pearce (director), Brad Ingelsby (writer, producer), Michael Pruss, Ridley Scott and Kevin Walsh (producers), Benjamin Kracun (cinematographer), Maya Maffioli (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A mother (Moore) goes to extreme lengths to protect her daughter (Sweeney) after a violent incident…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON ECHO VALLEY?

In movies, almost as much as in real life, we are taught about the importance of family, in addition to being shown how far it’s possible for any of us to go in order to protect those who belong within our tribes. But what if a family member is morally and psychologically beyond help? Does our unconditional love for that person make things better or worse by essentially giving them exactly what they want, even if it’s something that will only ever escalate the situation? Two recent movies, director Babak Anvari’s Hallow Road and now director Michael Pearce’s Echo Valley, have challenged and explored the parental desire to do whatever it takes to ensure the safety and well-being of their child, but only the latter directly addresses that this may not be the noble act it may be intended as.

However, Echo Valley sputters where Hallow Road speeds along, thanks to its somewhat sporadic structure that picks and chooses when it wants to focus on the themes raised in the above paragraph. There’s still a fair amount to like about the film, but when it comes to really delivering something that’s truly challenging without sacrificing some of its core themes, Hallow Road is the far superior choice of parent-child relationship deconstructions.

The film, which Pearce directs from a script by Brad Inglesby, is set primarily on the titular farm and stables estate that is owned by Kate (Julianne Moore), who is in mourning following the sudden death of her partner. Nonetheless, she remains committed to being a loving mother to her adult daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney), a drug addict who has a habit of showing up only when she needs money or other things, according to her father and Kate’s ex-husband Richard (Kyle MacLachlan, largely wasted in a singular expository scene near the beginning). However, when Claire comes through the door in a state of shock, covered in blood that isn’t hers but that of her boyfriend whom she claims to have hit with a rock during an argument, Kate makes the snap decision to dispose of the body in the nearby lake, and come up with a concrete alibi to protect her daughter from legal trouble. Unfortunately, without getting into specifics, things quickly become much worse for the two, especially when Jackie (Domhnall Gleeson), a thuggish associate of Claire and her now-deceased lover, enters the picture.

The keen detail that neither Pearce nor Inglesby (the latter formerly of the acclaimed miniseries Mare of Easttown) are eager for you to remember throughout everything that happens is that this mother-daughter relationship is anything but healthy. In their first initial scenes together, we see Kate and Claire – both very well-played by Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney respectively – being close as mothers and daughters tend to be, until Claire starts to exhibit subtle behaviour that strongly suggests she’s taking advantage of her mother’s all-too eager generosity, something that is brutally confirmed mere scenes later.

That’s because, drug addiction aside (though it certainly hasn’t helped matters), Claire is a pretty despicable person, the deadly combination of spoiled and manipulative which Moore’s Kate constantly gives into, which feels especially unpleasant given that this character is still in a grieving state and therefore not in a fully capable position to indulge her daughter’s wished. So when the time comes for Kate to commit the ultimate level of protection for Claire when she comes in with her boyfriend’s blood all over, you don’t so much feel a level of pride or compassion for her actions but more so a sterner feeling of regret and even annoyance that she is, once again, giving her entitled daughter exactly what she wants without standing up for what is ethically and morally right.

Had this been the central dilemma and scenario at play, Echo Valley really could have been as fascinating a parent-child breakdown as Hallow Road, perhaps even more so. Unfortunately, the movie proceeds to take a number of directions that essentially eradicate the core relationship until the final few moments, replacing it with what feels like the plot of a different, more standard home invasion thriller that isn’t nearly as complex. While Pearce is an excellent filmmaker who brings a neat vision to the proceedings, including one fascinatingly realised shot incorporating both slow-motion and regular speed within the same frame, Inglesby’s script constantly stops itself from exploring some of the harder-hitting implications of what’s going on, instead giving us a clear-cut villain straight out of a 90s erotic thriller who, menacing performance aside, is simply there to boo-hiss at rather than add much to what should be the main focus. It’s also the kind of film that banks on exact things happening at just the right time for the plot to work, which as is often the case stretches general believability and straight into all-out convenience, which for a supposedly grounded film like this feels too heightened for its own good.

Though the overall narrative makes a number of decisions that probably weren’t the wisest choice for such a concept, Echo Valley at least has you invested enough to actually care about what ends up happening to some of these people. That’s largely down to a mixture of Pearce’s sharp direction and an excellent cast delivering compelling enough performances for you to become invested in, even when the characters themselves are by definition irredeemable after a certain point.

But even though where it does eventually lead you isn’t quite as satisfying as it could have been with a much tighter focus, you’re at least with it enough to make sure things turn out okay-ish for those involved, despite the fact that it’s not quite as effective in its parent-daughter analysis as Hallow Road.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Echo Valley is a well-made and well-acted but ultimately unfocused thriller that oddly disposes of its more intriguing themes and concepts for something much more conventional and even implausible, with only the strong filmmaking and sharp performances ensuring you’re still interested in where it all eventually leads.