In a world where a fast-acting plague has rendered most of the water undrinkable, Sarah (Shailyn Pierre-Dixon, Suicide Squad), and her family have the most precious resource imaginable, a well of pure, clean, untainted water. With her father, Paul (Arnold Pinnock, Exit Wounds), and mother, Elisha (Joanne Boland, Fear Street: Prom Queen), she lives a quiet life, one thrown into upheaval by the arrival of her long-lost cousin, Jamie (Idrissa Sanogo, The Fire Inside).
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Sarah feels trapped and penned in, yearning to explore. There are allusions to her brother dying, but for her, that feels vague and far in the past. Despite her parents’ constant warnings about the dangers of the outside, she doesn’t quite grasp the weight of the potential consequences. When she and Jamie venture out to find a crucial part for the well, she finds out the reality all too quickly when they encounter a group of survivors/borderline cult led by Gabriel (Sheila McCarthy, Anything for Jackson), who, of course, isn’t as sweet and well-meaning as she initially appears.
Early on, the script from Kathleen Hepburn (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open) and Michael Capellupo, drops quite a ton of information. In addition to the plague, there’s the privatization of the water supply, rampant militarization, escalating conflict throughout society, forced migration, camps that seem eerily prescient at the moment, and more. After this is dumped at our feet right out of the gate, it’s pushed to the side. This detail exists to establish the ground rules of the foreground action, add a layer of pressure, looming on the periphery, and serves as a backdrop for moral and ethical themes of isolationism versus community, trust, what we owe to each other, and more to play out.
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There’s a lot going on in the plot, though the core of the narrative is Sarah’s story. Pierre-Dixon carries this well, playing her as sheltered and hopeful, but also pragmatic. Watching her with McCarthy, warm and endearing one moment, holy-shit cold and calculating the next, is fantastic stuff. But there are disparate threads that aren’t given as much consideration. Paul sets out to track Sarah and faces his own solo perils. Elisha, left alone to unravel in solitude, loses herself in the painful memories of losing her other child. Everyone gets their story and trauma, but the film never balances them well and cutting back to one or the other often feels like an afterthought.
This may be Davis’s first feature, but not his first rodeo, and he clearly has an adept visual sense. Working with cinematographer Stuart James Cameron (Making Monsters), there’s an eye for interesting compositions and delicate framing. The expansive Canadian landscapes drive home the imposed isolation, and they put industrial ruins and remains to excellent use as locations and as a subtle tool to build a crumbling world. A smaller production, for sure, the world, and thus the film, never feels small or constrained by the on-set resources.
By turns bleak and grim, but ultimately landing on an apprehensive hopefulness, The Well breathes life into a dead or at least dying world. Like 40 Acres earlier this year, it doesn’t rewrite the formula, but it uses the template to tell a taut, moving story. With lovely photography, strong acting, and thematic depth and complexity, the end result is a journey well worth taking.
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