Echo Valley (2025)

Despite the pedigree of Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney, Echo Valley was a real surprise. That's because it's an Apple TV release, and as we all know as a rule, most of the films produced by streaming platforms leave a lot to be desired.

There are exceptions of course; the Safdie brother's Uncut Gems (2019) springs to mind, anything by Paul Greengrass that he's released straight to streaming platforms, and of course Mubi as an entire company have a pretty strong record.

Having said that I did enjoy Apple's Luck (2022)- a rather charming animation with a young woman, a cat, and some leprechauns. Anyway, I digress. Echo Valley stars Julianne Moore as a Mother living in seclusion with her daughter on a farm in Pennsylvania. Moore is Kate, who works as a horse trainer and still relies on her ex-husband (Kyle MacLachlan, whose extremely brief cameo is a brilliant one) for money to keep the farm running- but his role isn't particularly relevant.

Sydney Sweeney's Claire, Kate's troubled daughter, is the root cause of everything that goes wrong in Echo Valley. Claire's behaviour is despicable, screaming at her mum, at times physically attacking her- and we learn that she's been in and out of rehab. She needs a good slap- and not to keep receiving sympathy, as MacLachlan says- but Kate is unwilling to punish her for fear of losing her only family; we learn that she later remarried and her wife recently passed away.

Claire gets herself into major trouble- I won't give away the details- but Echo Valley becomes a meditation on familial bonding, and questions just how far you'd go for your kids. Quite far, in the case of Kate.

Domhnall Gleeson turns up later on as a drug dealer who Claire owes money to, and he's on sublime form- oily, creepy, and very nasty piece of work. Fiona Shaw also provides good work as Kate's friend Leslie, who turns what could have been a very slight role into one that you're fully rooting for, and all the performances transform what is essentially a standard thriller into something really quite gripping.

As the film hurtles towards its conclusion, you're genuinely unsure of how it's all going to turn out, and the dark edges to the film suggest that it might not end well. It's to director Michael Pearce's great credit that Echo Valley keeps you on edge for its duration, and despite the fact that a flashback sequence near the conclusion-that spoon feeds you how everything unfurled- is utterly unneeded, Pearce's film is a surprisingly solid thriller that boasts excellent performances from its capable cast. 7.4/10