Or, ‘Oops! I Did It Again.’ Julianne Moore stars, with Sydney Sweeney as her daughter, in a new movie debuting globally on Apple TV+.
It was a dark and stormy night.
Julianne Moore is a hard worker! Early scenes in Echo Valley demonstrate her tireless efforts to perform all the daily tasks at her beautifully-maintained horse farm, without any help at all. A farmer’s life is not an easy life, and Julianne Moore, as Kate, does not shy away from any of it.
Soon, it is revealed that she is dealing with an intensely personal loss, and may be dealing with her grief by toiling away at her farm. Unfortunately, the farm is no longer able to earn enough revenue to pay all the bills that accumulate, and her ex-husband (Kyle MacLachlan) no longer wishes to support her dream financially.
Complicating things further, Kate’s junkie daughter Claire returns from Hell, where she claims she has been living a clean life free from drugs, which is soon belied when she angrily demands money from her mother, pounding on the door repeatedly in a rage, before leaving with her loser boyfriend. Just when Kate thinks that Claire is out of her life (again), Claire returns in the midst of a stormy downpour with a woeful tale that moves Kate to questionable action.
Written by veteran scribe Brad Inglesby (Run All Night) and directed by Michael Pearce, Echo Valley feels like a spec script influenced by twisty thrillers from the 80s and 90s that ticked multiple commercial boxes and integrated outrageous twists and turns. It features an outlandish villain in Domhnall Gleeson as a menacing, constantly glaring criminal, munching on all all the scenery in sight with a diabolical glee and plenty of relish slobbered on top.
Through Julianne Moore’s Kate, the film gives a firm reprimand to indulgent parents everywhere. She has raised a Daughter From Hell, for whom her ex-husband has disavowed all responsibility, which is in keeping with the film’s evident view that all men are Evil and not to be trusted. (Fair enough.)
Kate, however, cannot allow any harm to come to her child by her hand or anyone else’s, no matter if said child is actually the one who is inflicting harm upon others. Julianne Moore invests Kate with great strength and dignity, however, and so it is impossible to root for her to come to her senses and disown the child, like, yesterday. (The overriding message of the film appears to be: Just say no, parents.)
Instead, even as the plot twists into a convoluted hot mess, we cheer Julianne Moore onward. She is the embodiment of every mother’s best wishes for her disobedient and misbehaving children. We can only hope that she can somehow rescue her Daughter From Hell from all her tribulations and deliver her to a place of peace and rest, where men do not roam and horses run free.
The film is now streaming globally, exclusively on Apple TV+.
Dallas Film Now. 