‘Echo Valley’ Review: An A-List Cast Can’t Rescue This Moody but Middling Thriller

On paper, Echo Valley sounds like a knockout: Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney in a tense mother-daughter crime thriller, written by Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby and directed by Beast filmmaker Michael Pearce. Throw in support from Domhnall Gleeson and Fiona Shaw, and you’ve got the bones of a prestige drama. But as it turns out, not every horse in this stable is a thoroughbred.

The film opens strong. Moore plays Kate Garretson, a grieving widow and horse trainer struggling to stay afloat on her rural Pennsylvania farm. It’s a moody, atmospheric setup, complete with misty fields, creaking barns, and a woman trying to hold her life together with haywire strings. But when Claire (Sweeney), her estranged daughter battling addiction, turns up bloodied and panicked, Echo Valley quickly pivots from brooding character study to crime thriller. And that’s where it starts to wobble.

Sweeney’s Claire is the kind of chaotic character who can tip a whole story on its side, if she were actually in more of it. After a dramatic entrance, Claire disappears for long stretches, leaving Moore to shoulder much of the tension solo. It’s a solid performance, as expected, but you can’t help feeling the central dynamic, between a desperate mother and her dangerous daughter, never gets the screen time it deserves.

There are glimpses of what the film could have been. The interactions between Kate and Claire simmer with tension. “I… I need help,” Claire says early on, her understatement laced with menace. Moore, clinging to hope while barely keeping panic at bay, brings a quiet devastation to the role. Sweeney, for her part, plays Claire with slippery intensity, manipulative one moment, wounded the next.

But once the plot kicks in, a dead body, a drug deal gone wrong, and a menacing dealer named Jackie (played with snarling theatricality by Gleeson) the emotional realism starts to slip. The script leans into noir territory, but the suspense lacks weight. Key twists feel too convenient, and a third-act reveal lands with more of a shrug than a gasp. To Pearce’s credit, the film looks fantastic. The cinematography captures the chilly quiet of rural Pennsylvania with elegance, and the score hums ominously, there’s atmosphere to spare…if only the narrative matched the visual polish.

Echo Valley isn’t bad, it’s just frustrating. With this much talent, it could have been so much better.

Gleeson’s Jackie enters with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball. He’s clearly having fun, but his role is more cartoonish than credible. It’s Fiona Shaw that adds a welcome jolt as Kate’s fiercely loyal friend, providing brief but needed levity. Kyle MacLachlan, however, is underused in a blink-and-you-miss-it turn as Kate’s ex-husband. And while the stakes escalate in the back half, they never quite feel earned. Once Claire exits the story for large stretches, much of the film’s emotional energy drains away.

By the end, Echo Valley feels like two different films vying for dominance: a sharp domestic drama about a mother’s blind love and a pulpy crime story with guns, threats, and drug lords. Neither fully delivers. The performances—particularly Moore’s—remain gripping, but the story surrounding them doesn’t hold together. As Claire threatens to harm the family dog during withdrawal in one scene, the film momentarily finds its teeth. But it’s one of too few moments that truly sting.

Echo Valley isn’t bad, it’s just frustrating. With this much talent, it could have been so much better. And the final twist, meant to reframe the story, instead makes the preceding 90 minutes feel like a long buildup to something surprisingly flat. It’s expertly crafted and well-acted, but it ultimately sinks into forgettable thriller territory.

Echo Valley is now streaming on Apple TV+ and playing in select theaters.

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