Film Review" Echo Valley"
Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney shine in the new potboiler of a maternal melodrama from Apple TV+.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the film follow.
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, if there’s something with Julianne Moore in it–whether it be TV or film–I’m going to watch it. She’s one of those actresses who still has the glamour and the charisma that we associate with the Hollywood of old (by which I mean the 1990s and before). What’s more, she is unmatched when it comes to playing the heroines of melodramas, whether that be Todd Haynes’ Far from Heaven or May December or The Room Next Door. She is one of those performers who really does have the gift for combining strength and vulnerability in equal measure, and I just adore her.
All of this is precisely what makes her such a perfect woman for the role of Kate Garrett in Apple’s potboiler of a maternal melodrama, Echo Valley. Written by Brad Ingelsby (famous for writing and producing Mare of Easttown) and directed by Michael Pearce, it’s peak maternal melodrama, focusing as it does on Kate’s grief over her late wife and her dangerous and ultimately destructive loyalty and love for her daughter, Claire. Sydney Sweeney gives a career-best performance as the latter, a drug addict whose choices pull her mother into a maelstrom of chaos and further bad choices that nearly ruins them both. Among other things, she convinces her mother that she killed her boyfriend Ryan during an argument, after which Kate dumps the body in a nearby lake. Things go even further off the rails after that, as poor Kate has to reckon with the consequences of both her and Claire’s actions and, to make matters worse, she’s also blackmailed by Jackie Lawson, a local drug dealer and general nuisance (played by Domhnall Gleeson). It ultimately takes all of her cleverness and skills to outwit him and save herself and her farm.
There’s two scenes in particular which make this entire film worthwhile. The first is the highly melodramatic–yet also supremely effective–moment when Claire, desperate to get money from her mother, essentially flies into a rage, screams at her, assaults her, and tries to steal her dog, all before fleeing into the night. Sweeney digs deep in this moment, and she really captures the terror and desperation of an addict who will do anything, no matter how horrible, in order to get the money she needs for her next fix (even though the money is supposedly to pay off Jackie, whose drugs she accidentally destroyed, the film leaves us in no doubt as to the truth of matters). I’ve seen quite a few Sydney Sweeney performances, but this one has to be her very best and, though I highly doubt this film will be even considered for any Oscars, I will be the first to say that this is an Oscar-worthy performance. It’s terrifying. It’s raw. It’s something that you won’t be able to ever forget.
The other scene is a beautiful one in which Kate bonds with her dear friend, Jessie Oliver (played by an always-magnificent Fiona Shaw). Watching these two queer women dance around the living room, drink themselves silly, and just generally enjoy one another’s company is a true delight. Watching Moore and Shaw act together, you can well believe that these are two queer women who’ve seen a few things but who can always count on the other to have their back. There’s an emotional authenticity to this entire sequence that drew me in and filled me with joy, and it’s a lovely oasis of calm in the midst of all of the other chaotic plot shenanigans that take up most of the film.
The same goes for a later scene in which Kate gets to spend time with Jessie and her wife, Joan (Melanie Nicholls-King). There’s a quiet power to seeing older queer women get to spend time with another as friends, sharing stories and just getting to be themselves. Given how much chaos has consumed Kate’s life, and given the fraught relationship she has with her ex-husband (played by Kyle MacLachlan, who has really entered his aggrieved father’s stage of his career) and her daughter, one can see why this little queer enclave would mean so much to her.
Unfortunately, the film doesn’t really know what to do with Claire after it’s revealed that Ryan is alive and well after all and that, as a result, Kate dumped some complete stranger’s body in the lake. Once Claire’s duplicity is revealed and she largely disappears from the narrative, Echo Valley loses its bite and its motivating energy, and the middle of it becomes both quite interminable and, if I’m being honest, a bit of a mess. I love Domhnall Gleeson–he really does have a gift for playing sneering villains that you just want to punch in the face–but a little of him goes a long way. Watching him slowly torment and blackmail Kate with the knowledge that she was complicit in a murder and its hiding works well enough for a while, but the film makes this whole bit go on for far too long.
Kate, however, isn’t the type to just accept this state of affairs and, with Jessie’s help she manages to recover the body from the lake, plant it in her barn, and make it all look as if Jackie was responsible for both the death and the burning of her property (she even manages to save the horses that are inside!) The police, needless to say, are far more willing to accept this as the explanation rather than the truth: that a pillar of the community and a wife and mother hid the body of someone she didn’t know to protect her daughter. This whole escapade might be a bit too far-fetched to be truly believable. However, in a film like Echo Valley this doesn’t really matter all that much. After all, when you’re watching what essentially amounts to a Lifetime movie with high production values, plot coherence isn’t really a high priority.
I’ve seen quite a few commentators draw comparisons between Echo Valley and Mildred Pierce, and I think there’s a lot of validity to those comparisons. Both films are, at bottom, about the terrible lengths that a mother will go to in order to protect her daughter, even if said daughter doesn’t seem to be particularly grateful. When, in the end, Claire shows up at the door once again, one can’t help but wonder: just what sort of stupid trouble is she going to lead her mother into this time? And why on Earth would Kate agree to help her again?
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Echo Valley is a good film, but it is at least an enjoyable one. It’s one of those films that really is worth a view just for the performances. I just wish that we’d gotten to see more of Moore and Sweeney on screen together. Still, there are worse ways to spend a Friday night’s viewing.