Echo Valley Movie Review: Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney elevate a flawed but tense mother-daughter thriller

Echo Village

‘Echo Valley’ is a quietly intense film that looks at a mother-daughter relationship—but with a sharp twist. At first glance, it feels like a simple domestic drama: a mother, Kate, doing everything she can to save her troubled daughter, Claire. But very quickly, the film shifts gears and becomes something darker and far more unpredictable.

What starts out as an emotionally fraught character study gradually turns into a slow-burning thriller. And while that tonal shift might throw some viewers off, there’s something absorbing about the way the tension creeps up. It’s not a perfect film by any means, but it knows how to keep you leaning forward, waiting to see what happens next.

The suburban quiet setting only adds to the milieu—peaceful on the surface, but with a quiet sense of dread always lurking underneath.

Secrets, blood, and a desperate choice

Kate (Julianne Moore) lives a lonely life on a horse farm, giving riding lessons and nursing grief over her partner Patty’s death.

Her daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney), born from an earlier marriage with Richard (Kyle MacLachlan), is in a downward spiral of drug abuse. Both Kate and Richard have tried—and failed—to help her. One day, Claire shows up at the farm in a panic, dragging her boyfriend along.

Soon after, a man named Jackie (Domhnall Gleeson) appears, claiming Claire destroyed $10,000 worth of heroin and demanding repayment. Kate, instinctively protective, decides to pay him off using money meant for fixing up the farm.

But things spiral when Claire returns again, this time covered in blood. From there, the story changes gears. Kate makes a decision that could change not only her daughter’s fate but also her own—and that’s when the film really comes into its own.

Strong performances hold the plot

What holds the film together, even when the plot wobbles, is the cast. Julianne Moore is remarkable as Kate.

There’s something about the way she holds herself—grief just under the surface, but a steely calm when it matters—that makes you believe in every choice she makes, no matter how questionable. Sydney Sweeney plays Claire with an erratic energy that feels all too real. She doesn’t get a ton of screen time, but when she’s there, she’s hard to ignore.

Domhnall Gleeson as Jackie is unnerving without being over-the-top, and Fiona Shaw and Kyle MacLachlan offer quiet support in smaller roles that still leave an impact. It’s not flashy acting, but it’s grounded—and that’s what the film needs.

An uneven narrative with striking moments

Where ‘Echo Valley’ stumbles a bit is in its pacing. The first half suggests an intimate drama, and then the story suddenly shifts into crime-thriller mode.

For some, that might feel disjointed, like two different films stitched together. But if you’re willing to go along for the ride, it does find its rhythm eventually.

One of the best scenes in the film is a simple one—Claire demanding money from Kate, and the way things escalate from tense to terrifying in seconds. It’s raw, messy, and completely believable. The director, Michael Pearce, seems more interested in the unease between characters than big plot twists—and while that means the story can feel slow at times, the emotional payoff in the end makes it worth sticking with.

A haunting ending

By the time the credits roll, ‘Echo Valley’ leaves you with a strange, unsettling feeling. Not because of anything graphic or overly dramatic, but because it taps into something so painfully familiar: the limits of unconditional love.

It asks the kind of questions most of us don’t want to answer—like how far we’d go to protect someone we love, even if they’ve hurt us again and again. The film’s climax takes you by surprise and leaves you with a warm smile. It’s not a film that wraps things up neatly, and it doesn’t try to. But it lingers. And that, more than anything, makes it a decent watch.

Cast: Julianne Moore, Sydney Sweeney, Domhnall Gleeson, Fiona Shaw, and Kyle MacLachlan

Director: Michael Pearce

Rating: 3.5/5

(‘Echo Valley’ is streaming on Apple TV)