The Well

Out on a remote farm, Rabe takes on as home-help young Miranda Otto, an emotionally unstable waif who soon responds gratefully to Rabe's various kindnesses; but their blossoming relationship hits trouble when a car accident forces them to dump a body down the farm's well. Lang's portentous, hysterical psycho-drama about desire, guilt and repressed emotions wears its metaphors and symbols all too conspicuously on its sleeve. Undecided as to whether it's a horror pic or an art movie, and unconcerned with plot logic (why don't the women just tell the cops about their accident?), it resorts increasingly to contrived shop-worn melodrama. As a bonus, it includes one of the most risible dream sequences in years.