Fantasia 2025 | Movie Review: "The Well" Walks A Well Worn Path Through An Intriguing World
8/12 ForReel Score | 3/5 Stars
Post-apocalyptic stories tend to serve as warnings that come in many forms; sometimes they are about how the apocalypse might unfold, or about the resources we will fight over, or the people who will be doing the fighting. Whether the future is filled with robots or devoid of resources, there's always human drama and things to learn.
In The Well, Sarah (Shailyn Pierre-Dixon) and her parents, Paul and Elisha (Arnold Pinnock and Joanne Boland), live in one such future. The world is in environmental collapse, people are scarce and desperate, and the water supply is tainted. Deep in the woods, they've carved out a self-sustaining place to live, complete with everything one needs, including a well full of pristine, clear, and uninfected water. Everything is going well until two things happen: a young man named Jamie (Idressa Sanogo) shows up, who may or may not be Sarah's long-lost cousin, and the wellhead is damaged, threatening the water supply.
There's some back and forth about how to handle these situations and whether it's safe to venture into the world, but ultimately, Sarah leaves the safety of the family home with Jamie in tow to go look for someone who can either repair or replace the part they need. This leads them the compound that Jamie had been staying at, filled with desperate people and led by a matriarch figure called Gabriel (Sheila McCarthy).
If the premise of The Well sounds familiar, it should. "Young person sneaks away to save the family, but ends up with more than they can handle" is a tried and true setup. There are a few predictable beats, but it's the characters that need to keep you hooked. Pierre-Dixon does a good job of managing the waryness toward a world she knows is against her and the naiveté of thinking she can safely navigate it anyway. There are lessons in these worlds that only experience can teach, and she is very believable as the innocent and trusting one, and the one in whom our trust should be placed.
The real standout is veteran Canadian character actor Sheila McCarthy. Her turn here is against her usual type. Gabriel is the type of leader who appears warm and inviting but is actually cold, calculating, and manipulative. She's the leader who will convince others that radical candour is the only way to exist in her presence, while holding everything back herself, and who will preach benevolence but turn to violence immediately if there's nothing in the situation for her. Moreover, not only is she all of this, there's a glimmer of humanity beneath it all. Gabriel may be too far down her particular path, but McCarthy makes sure you can tell exactly where the path began even with minimal exposition.
This is the feature debut of director Hubert Davis, and you can see his documentary roots in the filmmaking as well. The script (co-written with Coral Aiken) and production are well thought out but minimal. There's enough detail to give you a sense of this world, and much of it is background or offhand; Davis and Aiken clearly trust the audience to dive into the world and understand it, which is refreshing in today's film landscape. It's the kind of film that could easily be underbaked and action-heavy, but instead, it's a character study that we can all relate to.
The Well might tread on some familiar territory, but its well-defined characters –particularly the performance by McCarthy as the antagonist – and well-thought-out world make it perhaps not unique, but entirely believable. We may not be facing a future where the water supply is tainted with disease, but we are facing a world where our water supply is under threat, and the film lays bare what that world might look like.
Acting and Casting - 2 | Visual Effects and Editing - 1 | Story and Message - 2 | Entertainment Value - 1 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 1 | Reviewer's Preference - 1 | What does this mean?