'Echo Valley' review: Sweeney and Moore can’t save this overcooked drama

Courtesy of Apple TV+

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Sydney Sweeney showed off her dramatic chops with last year’s solid horror film “Immaculate,” so it’s no surprise she’s trying to tap into that energy again, this time opposite a pro like Julianne Moore, who always brings her A-game no matter the quality of the project. If only “Echo Valley,” the vehicle crafted for them by “Mare of Easttown” creator Brad Ingelsby, had a little more spark and a lot less separation. Sweeney plays the drug-addicted daughter of Moore’s character, who storms back into her mother’s life only to disappear for most of the film’s second half, just as the proverbial shit hits the fan.

Moore is Kate, a lonely woman still reeling from an unimaginable loss. She finds solace tending to her farm in rural Pennsylvania, where she trains and boards horses. Her routines and a budding friendship with her neighbor Jessie (Fiona Shaw) offer small comforts. But the one relationship Kate clings to, despite her ex-husband’s (Kyle MacLachlan) insistence she let go, is with her daughter Claire (Sweeney), a beautiful but troubled soul who only turns up when she needs something.

That fragile bond is put to the test when Claire returns home one night with someone else’s blood on her shirt, and a shady, menacing dealer (Domhnall Gleeson, acting circles around an underwritten role) hot on her trail. Things go sideways fast. As Kate scrambles to keep the police at bay, the question looms: how far will she go to protect her daughter?

Directed by Michael Pearce, “Echo Valley” offers up striking images of the rural countryside and an engaging, quietly menacing turn from Gleeson, who walks off with the show. Sweeney, to her credit, delivers a few chilling moments where Claire’s addiction reaches terrifying heights. The problem is, we want more of her and Moore together. Instead, the film makes the odd choice to separate them for almost the entire second half, missing an opportunity to let their fractured bond drive the tension and ultimately confront Gleeson’s threat.

It all builds to an overwrought finale, capped by a twist so far-fetched it shatters any sense of plausibility. That’s a surprise coming from the mind behind one of the better cop dramas of recent years with “Mare of Easttown.” The cast does what it can with the material, but in the end, “Echo Valley” becomes too convoluted and silly for its own good.

Grade: C-

ECHO VALLEY is now steaming on Apple TV+