Strong, tough and self-confident, but often frequently broken women's figures are something like the trademark of Julianne Moore, who never shy away from demanding challenges in their long Hollywood career. In 2015, the often award -winning character actress was consequently distinguished for her impressively realistic embodiment of an Alzheimer's patient in “Still Alice: My Life without Yesterday” with the Oscar for the best female leading role.
The filmmaker Michael Pearce also appreciates this hidden vulnerability with the strength paid strength, as he emphasized in interviews. For him, Julianne Moore was in the leading role of “Echo Valley“Set right from the start. In fact, its multi-layered performance also ensures that the thriller produced exclusively for Apple TV+ for a body disposed of in a lake never falls in the deep logic holes of the plot. Nevertheless, character drama and suspense thrillers rarely run coherent here, let alone organically interlock.
Julianne Moore is the main reason why “Echo Valley”, despite a manageable level of tension, is at least convincing as a character drama.
After her spouse Patty (Kristina Valada-Viars) died in a riding accident, Kate Garretse (Julianne Moore) has a lonely existence on her extensive farm, which also hardly uses any money. The relationship with her from an earlier marriage to lawyer Richard (Kyle Maclachlan) daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney) is also difficult: the drug addicted teenager can only be seen sporadically with a shortage of money.
Because she is currently particularly deep in the chalk during her unscrupulous dealer Jackie Lawson (Domhnall Gleeson), Claire stands in front of Kates's door at night and confesses her to her friend Ryan (Edmund Donovan). To protect her daughter, Kate sunk the body in nearby Marsh Creek Lake and otherwise eliminates all tracks. But then Jackie begins to blackmail Kate with his knowledge of the moist corpse hiding …
Juliane Moore is-at least for the drama part-a safe anchor
In his film debut “Beast”, Michael Pearce put a strongly played and sensitive outsider love drama in the foreground-the thriller plot about a surrounding killer, on the other hand, was rather secondary. With “Echo Valley” it is similar: in the first half hour the tears, whether in montages of Kate's everyday routines, are repeatedly rolling, when playing Patty's last voice messages or the arguments with her daughter. Only Leslie (Fiona Shaw), a friend from the lesbian community, can temporarily emotionally catch up with the longing nerve wreck after an intact family.
Julianne Moore (“May December”) plays this conflict between (short) burgeoning hope and bare despair on her farm as well as sensitively as it is sensitive. Sydney Sweeney (from the teen series “Euphoria”) also succeeds in withdrawal with its fucked-out appearance and nervous gesture. The already prevailing elegant mood is also emphasized by the somewhat thicker – and a little too loud – dramatic strings in the score of Jed Kurzel (“Monkey Man”).
This time Sydney Sweeney is much less glamorous than in her breakthrough role in the Romcom superhite “Where the lie” falls.
But then “Run All Night” author Brad Ingelsby is almost desirable to push the functional and sensitive mother-daughter family drama in the direction of Thriller-because as such “Echo Valley” is also marketed by his trailer flaring with suspense elements. However, this does not really succeed because of an overly foreseeable FINTE with a completely veiled (!) Corpse in the back seat. Kate's blue -eyed behavior in this situation lacks any logic as well as the final twist, which then once again expressed a few previously torn scenes.
Even if there is a tension in phases – as with a police patrol on the lake, Michael Pearce always lets the reins loose too much in between. The sensitive drama elements and the suspense scenes never give a coherent unit: Kate, for example, gets out old wedding videos, breaks emotionally and is looking for comfort at a meeting with two friends-until Jackie suddenly rings at the front door à la “There was something …”.
Conclusion: “Echo Valley” is a drama, which is particularly outstanding by Julianne Moore, who is also struggling and excessively constructed thriller elements.