Echo Valley movie review: Sydney Sweeney is squandered in Hollywood's dopey Drishyam dupe that can only be saved by Ajay Devgn

Indian Express

a day ago

The central thrust of the Drishyam movies relies on one basic truth: Ajay Devgn's character will do just about anything to protect his family. Not only does he cover up a murder, he also concocts an intricate scheme to keep the cops off his scent. The Drishyam movies don't realise this, but the protagonist is actually a psychopath in the guise of a protective family man. In the second movie, he even allows his teenage daughter to be manhandled by the police in order to keep up the charade. The Drishyam franchise holds some sort of record for having inspired the most remakes. And although it isn't an official adaptation, the new Apple movie Echo Valley follows the exact same beats. It would've been one of the rare examples of Hollywood ripping off an Indian project had Drishyam itself not been a rip-off of a Japanese novel.
Julianne Moore plays a middle-aged woman named Kate, who runs a horse farm in rural Pennsylvania. She's separated from her wealthy husband, played by Kyle MacLachlan, and is grieving the death of her wife. There's a lot of backstory in there that's communicated quite gracefully, especially for the kind of movie Echo Valley eventually turns out to be. Kate has a young daughter Claire, who's caused her immense trouble over the years. Played by Sydney Sweeney, Claire is a drug addict who comes and goes from Kate's life as she pleases. She's entangled with the wrong crowd, and has a shady boyfriend. Kate's manner, however, suggests that she's no longer interested in throwing her a rope. But when Claire shows up at her doorstep one night, soaked in what she says is her boyfriend's blood, Kate does what any mother would do. She gives her troubled daughter a hug, and tells her that she'll take care of it.
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Kate gets to work immediately, cleaning the interiors of Claire's car and driving the dead body dozens of miles away to a lake. There, she tosses the corpse off the side of her boat, and allows it to sink to the surface. Satisfied with her handiwork, she returns home and tells Claire that she needn't worry about a thing. But this is merely the end of the first act; there's an hour of movie left. Sure enough, more trouble arrives in the shape of a scary villain played by Domhnall Gleeson. He tells Kate that her daughter lied to her, and that the boyfriend is very much alive. Claire owes this guy thousands of dollars, and staged the murder in order to save herself. Someone did die, but it wasn't Claire's partner. And because Kate got involved in the cover-up, she's one 911 call away from being arrested.
The villain begins blackmailing her, and Kate has no choice but to comply. She's not only protecting herself, but also Claire. But this is when Echo Valley gets weird. Simply because she's outlived her usefulness to the plot, a scene is contrived for the express purpose of kicking Claire out of the movie. And so, for roughly 45 minutes of run time, Sweeney doesn't even appear in the film. It is left to Moore to do the heavy lifting all by herself, with some help by a scenery chewing Gleeson. Echo Valley is presented as some kind of artsy Sundance thriller; the cinematography is haunting, the pace is steady, and the tone very serious. Think of it like a version of Jennifer Lawrence's breakout movie Winter's Bone. But the movie has no idea how ridiculous it is.
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Forget the Drishyam-coded narrative, the entire thing rests on Kate's decidedly unbelievable criminal capabilities. Just because the plot calls for it, she magically transforms into Tom Hardy's fixer character from MobLand. There is no evidence to suggest that she has a mysterious past where she may have acquired these skills. The only flashbacks we get are of her dear departed wife, who seemed like a very nice lady. At least Ajay Devgn's character in Drishyam could claim to have learned everything he knows from the movies that he'd watch obsessively. In this regard, Echo Valley is an inferior film.
Directed by Michael Pearce, the movie is written by Brad Inglesby, who remains best known for having created the acclaimed HBO series Mare of Easttown. There are overt similarities between the two projects; both feature grieving middle-aged moms as protagonists. Considering how minor the daughter character is, it's sort of surprising that a star of Sweeney's popularity agreed to play it. She has nothing to do after a point; this is when a new character, played by Harry Potter's Fiona Shaw, pops in to support Kate. Would it have been that difficult to write Claire into the story instead? Perhaps not. In fact, it seems like Sweeney backed out of the project midway through, and the Shaw character was written in as a replacement. There's a sloppiness to Echo Valley that's difficult to explain, especially since it has the look and feel of something competent. Certainly, Moore is more than capable of rescuing subpar material from itself. She's quite solid here, as a woman pushed to the end of her rope, dealing with abandonment, sorrow, and intense guilt. But that's about it.
Echo Valley
Director – Michael Pearce
Cast – Julianne Moore, Sydney Sweeney, Domhnall Gleeson
Rating – 2/5
Rohan Naahar is an assistant editor at Indian Express online. He covers pop-culture across formats and mediums. He is a 'Rotten Tomatoes-approved' critic and a member of the Film Critics Guild of India. He previously worked with the Hindustan Times, where he wrote hundreds of film and television reviews, produced videos, and interviewed the biggest names in Indian and international cinema. At the Express, he writes a column titled Post Credits Scene, and has hosted a podcast called Movie Police.
You can find him on X at @RohanNaahar, and write to him at [e-mail]. He is also on LinkedIn and Instagram. ... Read More