Film Review – Echo Valley

The trials of parenthood are explored in “Echo Valley,” but not in full. Screenwriter Brad Ingelsby (“Out of the Furnace,” “The Way Back,” “Mare of Easttown”) examines the increasingly hostile relationship between a mother and her drug addict daughter, but the material isn’t a dramatic understanding of such particular suffering. Ingelsby is more interested in creating a thriller out of the situation, and not an inspired one with intriguing turns and corrupt characters. Director Michael Pearce (“Encounter,” “Beast”) has a committed lead performance from Julianne Moore, but not a firm grasp on suspense in the feature, which has a throttled sense of escalation and a screwy appreciation for its central crisis of motherly love. “Echo Valley” commences with some interesting illness, but once the writing starts to reveal its ultimate destination, it loses almost all of its appeal. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com