The Well

Bluesky

Three years ago, Jeremy LaLonde’s Ashgrove posited a world in which a disease had affected most of the world’s water supply, posing an existential threat to humanity. In Hubert Davis’ new film The Well, we might be looking at the after effects of that experience. Most of humanity is gone. Somewhere at a distance from the action, there are cities where life is regulated to a degree that some people find unbearable, but it’s hard to survive outside them. Sarah (Shailyn Pierre-Dixon) and her parents Arnold (Paul Devine) and Elisha (Joanne Boland) can do so only because they have a secret supply of safe water, a carefully hidden well fed from a spring with its origins deep in the earth.

Though it may seem peaceful, there is trouble in this family from the outset. Elisha is still mourning her son, Ben, who died from the illness three years ago, and awkward teenager Sarah is convinced that she loved him more than she loves her. Into this situation comes Jamie (Idrissa Sanogo), a refugee from the city who claims to be a relative, clutching a battered photograph. They place him in isolation, fearful that he may be infected, and spend the hours of his quarantine fiercely debating what to do. Is he really alone, as he claims? Might he betray them? Sarah tends to see things in simple terms, wanting to do what feels right, but her parents know that the water source upon which they depend is finite, and that if too many people try to exploit it, it could easily run out.

Things come to a head when it emerges that the filter protecting the well is broken. Somebody will need to travel to find a replacement. The night before her father is due to go, Sarah catches Jamie sneaking off, promising that he’ll do it, and naturally she insists on going with him.

What follows is fairly pedestrian stuff, with nothing that will come as a surprise to fans of post-apocalyptic fiction. The acting is competent enough but we never get a sense of how strange Sarah’s experiences must be to her – even just encountering a new person, when she and her parents have been alone for so long. The plot twists, including the ending, are all signposted well ahead of time. Furthermore, whilst one might be willing to suspend disbelief to an extent in a story like this, the utter carelessness about the many ways in which water-borne disease might infect a person without them actually drinking it makes that suspension significantly harder.

Davis makes an effort to elevate the film with constant shots of water in various forms: a babbling brook; a wide slow river rolling into an abandoned city; air thick with mist. Some of this is beautifully framed and contributes to the melancholy tone. There’s a reference to Lethe and one might think of the weeds that grow beside it, but sadly, for all that it made it to Fantasia, most of this film is already forgettable.

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