Saving Zoë (film)

Echo, a freshman in high school, is attempting to come to terms with the loss of her older sister, Zoë, who was murdered a year ago. On Echo's first day of high school, many students gawk at her or make comments as she walks by, while a few, including her crush Parker, approach her to offer their condolences. Echo's mother has been abusing antidepressants while her father works overtime. They regularly visit a family therapist, though Echo finds the sessions to be largely unhelpful.

One day, while sitting with her best friend Abby at lunch, Echo sees Zoë's boyfriend, Marc. Abby tells Echo that Marc had spent some time in a psychiatric hospital in the wake of Zoë's death. Marc was a prime suspect in Zoë's murder, and though the actual killer, an internet predator had confessed and was convicted, Echo still suspects Marc was involved. One day, while walking home, Echo comes across Marc's new car, and sees Zoë's diary in the passenger seat. She shatters the window with a nearby rock to retrieve the diary, and brings it home with her.

Once Echo begins reading, she learns that Zoë and Marc had met at a pool party over the summer. Marc is a recovering addict and doesn't indulge in drugs or alcohol. They began a relationship, and Zoë confessed to Marc her plans to move to Los Angeles or New York after graduation and begin a modeling career. Marc shares a secret of his own - his ex-girlfriend had gone to rehab after breaking up with him, and her parents got a restraining order against him. Marc insists that he has changed and that his past mistakes shouldn't define him, though Echo remains suspicious of him.

Echo and Abby go to a house party hosted by Abby's crush, Chess. The party's awkward and underwhelming, but Echo escapes outside with her crush, Parker. They make small talk, and the subject of Zoë eventually surfaces. Parker apologizes, but Echo insists she isn't offended. Parker assures her that the reason people act strange around Echo is for fear of causing her more pain than she has already been subjected to. Echo kisses him before they go back inside.

Echo attends her first school dance, leading to an encounter with Carley, Zoë's best friend, who persuades Echo to drink and take ecstasy with her. During her drug trip, Echo rushes to the bathroom, where she sees an apparition of Zoë, who urges her to stop pretending. Later, Carley runs into Echo and, mistaking her for Zoë in her high state, apologizes to her profusely, mentioning something about an unnamed male and a video. This encounter distresses Echo, who's found and comforted by Marc. Another flashback sequence shows Marc being interviewed by the police in front of Echo and her parents. It's revealed that Zoë's body was found in Marc's car, which he claimed she borrowed and didn't tell him why. Marc later attempted suicide via gunshot to the head, only to be stopped by his mother.

Echo continues reading Zoë's diary. Another flashback reveals Zoë and Carley taking photographs of each other in bikinis to help build their modeling portfolios. Carley invited her to hang out with a 24-year-old named Jason and his friend Tom, and Zoë finally gave in after several attempts to decline. She tried to leave, but the others convinced her to stay for just one drink. Zoë returned home visibly traumatized, and fell asleep in Echo's bed, ominously writing in her diary that Something happened that night. The next morning, she showed Echo a photo of Jason, and gravely made her promise to avoid him if she ever saw him.

Back in the present, Echo calls Carley, who invites her to a party at her friend Theresa's house. Echo arrives dressed in Zoë's clothes, where she meets Jason, and instantly recognizes him from the diary entries. Carley's visibly uncomfortable at Jason's presence. Marc suddenly appears and drags Echo out of the party, urging that he's taking her home. Echo argues with him, claiming that the only reason she's at the party is to uncover the truth about what happened to Zoë. Marc drops Echo at home, only for her to sneak back out and go to the Hunt, a nightclub Carley and Jason had mentioned earlier. This is interspersed with a flashback scene of Zoë at the same club. Zoë found Jason in the back party room, agreeing to make a deal with him. A distressed Zoë fled soon after, interspersed with a scene of Echo doing the same after noticing Jason. Echo then begins wearing Zoë's clothes to school, immediately drawing attention from the other students.

The next entry in Zoë's diary details a fight between her and Carley. The exact details of what happened at Jason's are kept unknown, but Zoë was upset about having been forced to do something she didn't want to, although Carley retained that it was all completely voluntary. Zoë was also convinced that whatever happened at Jason's would come back to haunt them, though Carley insisted nobody would find out. The following entry states that Zoë had bought Echo her own diary as a birthday gift and hid it in her closet. Echo goes to retrieve it, opens it and upon reading Zoë's message, breaks down in tears. Echo finally snaps at her next family therapy session, calling out her parents for their unhealthy coping mechanisms and angrily asserting that they all should have been more aware of Zoë's private life.

Echo then goes to meet Marc at his and Zoë's usual meeting spot, where Marc confides that he didn't know about Jason until he read Zoë's diary. Echo tells him about her encounter with Carley at the dance, and tells him of her plans to break into Jason's house to retrieve the mysterious video that Carley had mentioned, using Marc as a diversion. After school the next day, Echo goes to Jason's house with Carley, though Carley seems apprehensive about letting her do so. Parker insists on going with Marc once he realizes that Echo may be in trouble. Marc crashes his car into Jason's, which leads to a violent confrontation between the two, allowing Jason and Tom to be distracted long enough for Echo to sneak into the basement. There, she finds a laptop containing video files of Jason and Tom brutally raping several underage girls, one of them being Zoë - Carley had sex with Zoë in the video as well; it's revealed that she has been assisting the two men in drugging and raping underage girls in exchange for drugs. Echo is caught by Carley, who confesses that Jason and Tom film the videos for their private website, which distributes Child Porn, and that Zoë's murderer was a subscriber. Jason blackmailed Zoë, promising that he would delete the video if Zoë met with his alleged photographer friend for a private photo shoot, leading to her murder.

Tom and Jason barge into the basement and Tom knocks out Carley and ties Echo to the bed. They conspire to leave the state, and contemplate whether or not to kill Echo and Carley so that they don't report them to the police. As Jason begins packing his car, an injured Marc stands up and knocks him unconscious. Parker makes his way into the basement just as Echo frees herself, and he calls the police. Tom enters the basement, but Echo knocks him out before he can attack them. The two men are subsequently arrested for production of child porn, sex trafficking, rape, drug dealing and accessory to murder while their site is shut down.

A final flashback scene shows Zoë asking Marc if she can borrow his car, though not explaining why she needed it - she had been going to meet the supposed photographer. Marc confiscated her diary as a collateral, joking that, ironically enough, if she didn't come back, he would read it. Upon finishing the last entry in Zoë's diary, Echo, now having closure, says a final goodbye to her sister, apologizing for not knowing her well enough. Sitting at a bench at Zoë's favorite spot that has been built in her honor, Echo begins writing her first entry in the diary Zoë gifted to her.

In 2018, it was revealed that the Marano Sisters would appear in the lead roles. After joining the project, they added, "When we optioned Alyson Noel's book Saving Zoe ten years ago, we did it because as a mother, as a daughter, as a sister, and as women, we were incredibly moved by a powerful story. Now, a decade later, that same powerful story seems to be more relevant than ever" and "We are ecstatic that Blue Fox was as moved today as we were all those years ago and are thrilled to be working with them. Together, we hope to share a film that we couldn’t be more proud of with the world." in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.[1]

In April 2019, it was revealed the film would release on July 12, 2019.[2] It was later released on Netflix in the United States, on Amazon Prime Video for all European countries and, finally, it was released on Netflix for Latin America on April 1, 2020. It left Netflix in the United States on January 15, 2021.

• Saving Zoë at IMDb 
• Saving Zoë at AllMovie
• Saving Zoë at The Numbers