As Stephen King’s streaming adaptation of 1922 begins, you will want to have a cold lemonade on hand to deal with the parched throat brought on by the atmospheric visuals with which director Zak Hilditch artfully attempts to suffocate you. The oppressive heat, sparse cornfields, and gritty simplicity of a farm life in Hemingford Home, Nebraska very quickly create the invisible prison that Arlette James (Molly Parker) wants so desperately to escape. Molly Parker’s wide and longing stares above the green stalks of her cornfields and off into the horizon are drawn into sharp and drastic contrast with her obviously growing distaste for husband. [Note: The trailer below is NSFW.]
In direct opposition, Wilfred James (Thomas Jane) is firmly planted and flourishing on his birthright eighty acres. His heritage is in this land and Arlette’s inheritance of her father’s adjoining one hundred acres have created a kingdom that he loves and a future for his son, Henry (Dylan Schmid). Wilfred’s character has been grown from the Nebraska soil by a startling physical transformation by Thomas Jane. His gaunt frame and leathery skin are every bit the embodiment of the hardscrabble farmers who found a way to make a life from the earth in the 1920’s. His farm is appointed with the old trappings of farm technology and new advances in both farming and living such as the Model T and harvesting equipment. He is truly a man who is a part of his life and his family, his future, and his life is his farm. It is his hard luck that his wife’s hate is growing for everything about life on this farm, including him.
It is here that you will find yourself trapped in the intensifying unease and the rapid realization that Wilford has no intention of leaving this land and he, very much, hates Arlette for her every effort and word in that regard. In fact, her efforts to sell “her land” to the locally successful livestock company has him very much in mind of following their business model of slaughtering pigs. Though, he will try to first convince her that city living in Omaha is simply not the way to proceed. Maybe there is way to negotiate that Wilford and Henry can remain and Arlette can simply leave. Perhaps there is a way that they could divorce and split the land. Arlette can’t get money to go live in the city if she can’t sell her land and if she sells her land to the slaughterhouses, Wilford won’t be able to farm his land due to the “pollution” caused by massive animal killings running into the streams that feed his field. You will see that this is very much a horrible and twisted mirror image of “The Gift of the Magi” short story and there is no self-sacrifice for the better of the other person down here on the farm.
Yes, this is Stephen King’s back forty acres and something is going to have to give.
What happens from here will not be spoiled by me, but I will whet your appetite. You should have been salivating since the first scenes and hopefully that lemonade came in handy. But, I assure you by the end of this tale you’ll be needing a blanket and to pull your feet up from the floor. Those who are Constant Readers will recognize this novella from King’s collection Full Dark, No Stars and the adaptation does not disappoint in the slightest.
King unloads his toolbox of psychological weaponry as the tension mounts and the options for peace are whittled away from the rocking chairs on the front porch. The Master of Horror even channels some of the favorite methods of other masters like Poe’s rats and vengeance and the creeping dismay of a woman trying to succeed against the plotting of others used by Henry James. Hold on…doesn’t that name sound familiar?
Before this tale of woe is spun, you will meet the kindling love of young Hank and Shannon Cotterie, the daughter of Wilf’s neighbors, farming partner and friend. The young loves are pulled viciously into the web of betrayal and tragedy in a scene that will absolutely ensure that you leave the light on in your basement from now on.
You may not see every turn of the screw coming but the darkening hints and clues along the way through Farmer James’ journey will prickle the skin and make you wish you hadn’t guessed correctly as they finally reveal their intent. As you take a trip back to “the middle” and experience all that farm life had to offer in 1922. Fair warning, though, that some of what is offered, you may not want—and you surely won’t be able to give back.
Watched both this and Geralds Game.. Liked G.G. better but this was good too
Gerald’s Game is next up.