Review of 1922 (2017) by Gianni M — 09 Aug 2018

Hubris, as defined in Merriam Webster: "To the Greeks, hubris referred to extreme pride, especially pride and ambition so great that they offend the gods and lead to one's downfall. Hubris was a character flaw often seen in the heroes of classical Greek tragedy, including Oedipus and Achilles. The familiar old saying "Pride goeth before a fall" is basically talking about hubris.".

That's the one word that keeps popping into my head as I watched 1922, a movie based on Stephen King's story of the same name, in which the farmer named Wilfred (Thomas Jane) influences his son Henry into helping him murder his wife Arlette (Molly Parker) in order to prevent her from selling her part of the land to a livestock company (who wishes to use the land to build a slaughterhouse) and move to the city with their son.

Of course, as one would expect in these kinds of situations: Hubris. Wilfred's land and way of life starts to fall apart around him, at first just a bit until it starts to cascade together to create an avalanche that smothers the farmer. What I particularly like about this movie is the acting; the main cast really does a bang up job of portraying their characters off as real people, and the script helps along with that as well. I also find the costume design to be charming and quaint, very fitting for 1920's heartland Americana. I also appreciate that this is a movie that does a slow burn with the sense of fear of dread, instead of having it coming all at you in spades. This is a movie I would highly recommend.