There’s a growing strand of indie cinema in the post-apocalyptic genre that makes a virtue of a microbudget by crafting intimate, small-scale stories of sacrifice, resilience and survival that forgo spectacle in favour of emotion and character. The makers of The Well embrace this up-close approach, in a contemplative tale that prioritises mood over action.
After the contamination of global freshwater supplies leaves civilisation in ruins, isolated pockets of survivors have fled the cities in an endless search for water. Deep in the woods of the American wilderness, Sarah Devine (Shailyn Pierre-Dixon) shares a tiny homestead with her father (Arnold Pinnock) and her grief-stricken mother (Joanne Boland) – all of them sustained by the clean well on their land. When Sarah’s cousin Jamie (Idrissa Sanogo), long-thought dead, arrives at their smallholding, the family remains suspicious of his motives. But after mechanical failure pollutes the well, someone must leave the sanctuary to scavenge for essential parts before thirst or the waterborne virus kills them all.
The hunt for a replacement filter is simply the McGuffin that allows co-writers Michael Capellupo and Kathleen Hepburn to plunge Sarah into jeopardy and compel her to stress-test her family’s moral code against others’ survival instincts. But while the cinematography entices, the script lacks both clarity and punch. Arriving at a settlement run by the ruthless Gabriel (Sheila McCarthy), the film’s already languid pace falters, as it tracks the near-vegetative acquiescence of her followers. In search of insight, The Well scratches around at the surface of lots of themes but, for a film with an aspiration to appear ‘deep’, the results are frustratingly shallow.
THE WELL is available on streaming platforms in the UK.
