Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney star as a mother and daughter caught up in crisis in Echo Valley
Each relationship comes with its own particularities and complications, but few have been as elusively captured on screen as the complicated bond between a mother and her adult daughter. From jealousy to pride and protectiveness, a mother’s traumas and triumphs are often echoed in her daughter as she herself grows into her womanhood.
These are the themes tackled in Echo Valley, the new drama from Encounter director Michael Pearce. The film, which stars Academy Award winner Julianne Moore as coping mother and horse trainer Kate Garrett, begins when her adult daughter Claire, played by two-time Emmy nominee Sydney Sweeney, arrives on the doorstep of her secluded home soaked in someone else’s blood. Terrified and seeking her mother’s help, Claire’s arrival forces Kate to step away from her own all-consuming tragedy and focus on keeping her daughter safe against all odds.
“These are my favourite kinds of movies: movies about relationships,” Moore told Vanity Fair. “What will people do for one another? What kind of decisions do you make? How far will you go?”
And while many would assume that a mother would do just about anything to protect her child, the messier the relationship, the more one begins to question the extent to which one should become involved.
Penned by Emmy-nominated Mare of Easttown writer Brad Ingelsby, Echo Valley is equal parts drama and thriller, taking elements from true crime and fiction to create a rich tapestry between the two women. When we learn early on that Claire is an addict who has previously preyed upon her mother’s love and good will, audiences begin to get a clearer picture of the complex dynamic between the two women.
“I’ve had a lot of family members deal with addiction and then struggle with similar issues as Claire and her friends,” Sweeney shared with Vanity Fair. “I’ve kind of had firsthand experience with it . . . But when there was love in the air in the room, you truly still felt it. The person that they are at the core, as buried as they might be, is still there.”
For what it’s worth, this kind of high-emotion thriller is hardly a new venture for director Pearce, who explored themes of parenthood and family through his shorts Madrugada and Rite before branching out into feature films such as the 2017 family drama Beast and the 2016 sci-fi flick Encounter, which centres on a pair of young brothers relying on their father for protection during an alien invasion near their home.
But as much of Pearce’s DNA is in Echo Valley, the director admits that Ingelsby’s script is what helped him set the project off in the right direction.
“Usually I read either a script which has great characters but they’re in need of a really compelling story, or I read very genre-driven material but the characters feel like archetypes and they’re not really developed,” said Pearce. “When I read Brad’s script, it was in the [bullseye] where I got everything that I wanted. It had these rich and textured characters, and it felt like it was a film for grown-ups.”
Although Moore and Sweeney carry the bulk of the movie on their own highly capable shoulders, many other well-known and beloved actors appear in supporting roles and brief appearances.
Irish actor and writer Domhnall Gleeson appears as criminal Jackie Lyman, while Kyle MacLachlan plays Kate’s ex (and presumably Claire’s father). Richard Garrett. Edmund Donovan, Rebecca Creskoff, Albert Jones and BAFTA winner Fiona Shaw also star.
Echo Valley streams Friday, June 13, on Apple TV+