Review: Michelle Monaghan doubles up in Netflix's complicated, addictive mystery 'Echoes'

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Studio Synopsis: Echoes is a mystery thriller about two identical twins, Leni and Gina, who share a dangerous secret. Since they were children, Leni and Gina have secretly swapped lives, culminating in a double life as adults: they share two homes, two husbands, and a child but everything in their perfectly choreographed world is thrown into disarray when one of the sisters goes missing.

Review: I was provided six of the seven episodes. So, there’s always the chance that my opinion will change when I watch the final chapter. Endings matter. Particularly when it comes to mystery thrillers that are as entangled and intertwined as “Echoes.” Then again, maybe “Echoes” is different. By the time we reach the sixth episode, I suspect that the series has already played its best hand. It’s a switcheroo revelation that I would save for the end. They didn’t. So, the only question that remains is whether the characters will have the same epiphany?

Still, even a rotten ending won’t change my appreciation of Michelle Monaghan and her performance. It’s not unusual for an actor to play multiple roles in a play or film. It has often been used for both comedic and dramatic effect reaching back to the earliest days of public performances. Generally, the audience is more aware of the mistaken identity than the characters are. Monaghan takes this to the next level when she plays Leni and her twin sister Gina. What makes things more complicated is that Leni and Gina have a tradition of swapping identities on an annual basis. They’ve done so since they were children. Their families, including their husbands, are unaware of the swap.

Yes, the story is a bit convoluted and there’s quite a bit of soap opera in the narrative but there’s still a fun to be had in the journey of Leni and Gina. Or was it Gina and Leni? “Echoes” is compulsively effective in keeping the audience hanging on. Bumpy ride or no, they’ve clearly cracked the formula to keep audiences watching.