ECHO VALLEY - Review

Kate (Julianne Moore) lives on a farm in Echo Valley. It is situated on a large piece of land, which allows her to ride and train horses right on-site.

However, there hasn't been much training happening lately. Kate's wife recently died as a result of a riding accident. A tractor backfired, the horse bucked, and her wife fell and broke her neck. Understandably, Kate has had a rough time trying to work through everything. She's canceled all her student lessons but now finds herself in a financial bind. The barn needs a new roof, and it's going to cost $9,000.

Not knowing where else to turn, Kate decides to pay her ex-husband Richard (Kyle MacLachlan) a visit. He lays into Kate, going on about how he isn't going to keep investing in a farm that he wanted nothing to do with in the first place. As if that weren't enough, Richard then tells Kate that maybe she wouldn't be in a bind all the time if she'd simply stop bailing out their junkie daughter, Claire (Sydney Sweeney). He does reluctantly write Kate a check for the $9,000, just so she'll go away.

Speaking of Claire, she randomly shows up at Kate's doorstep one night. She and her boyfriend, Ryan (Edmund Donovan), have gotten into a fight. He chucked her phone into the water, and she threw all his belongings off a bridge. But what Claire doesn't know is that Ryan’s backpack contained a kilo he was moving for his dealer, Jackie (Domhnall Gleeson).

It turns out that drug dealers don't like their money being messed with. Jackie shows up at Kate's house and confronts Claire in the front yard. Kate comes out, tries to deescalate the situation, and ultimately winds up taking what Claire owes out of the $9,000 to settle up with Jackie. With that fiasco now in the rearview, Claire and Ryan decide to go camping to get away for a few days.

But you can't fix someone who doesn't want to fix themselves. So when Claire shows back up at Kate's, alone and covered in someone else's blood, Kate has a decision to make.

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Sydney Sweeney wasn't necessarily a bad pick for the role of Claire, but good lord was she overacting. While I do understand that playing a character like Claire requires a certain extent of eratic behavior, there's a balance to be had. Sydney, however, leans all the way in and winds up going so over the top in some instances that she could put some telenovelas to shame.

On the flip side of that, its not often that we get to see Domhnall Gleeson as the bad guy and now I want more of it. Here as Jackie he has almost this Jesse Plemons way of being disarmingly charming while also harboring a sinister evil just beneath the surface.

The rest of the cast were good in their respective roles. Nothing amazing, nobody will be on any awards lists, but they were solid performances nonetheless. If anything, my only other complaint with the cast would be that we only got Kyle MacLachlan for one scene.

As for the story, it definitely had some peaks and valleys. The first act starts out strong, the third act finishes strong, but the second act felt a bit unfocused. It was almost like we were just meandering along and ticking boxes in order to move the plot forward. Despite that, it still managed to hold my interest and kept me engaged.

While not a perfect film, Echo Valley is engaging and entertaining, with a few twists thrown in for good measure. It is a perfect "stream it on the couch" watch.

🍿 SCORE = 79 / 100