Higher Ground – A Promising Directorial Debut

With Higher Ground, Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, The Departed) flexes her directorial muscles in a subtle, affecting manner. Taken from the memoir, This Dark World, the film’s story focuses on the life of Corrine Walker (played by Farmiga) from her childhood to her coming of age in a close-knit fundamentalist sect.

During a Bible study class, a young Corrine (played by McKenzie Turner) is tentatively led by a fervent pastor (Bill Irwin) to invite Jesus into her heart. Later, as a budding teenager (played by Ms. Farmiga’s sister Taissa) Corrine’s passion for books and writing becomes apparent. She meets and falls in love with a hippie guitarist named Ethan (Boyd Holbrook, later Joshua Leonard) whom she later marries after becoming pregnant. A near-tragic accident propels the young couple to join the welcoming and exuberant evangelical group. Corrine is baptized in a lake; the lead pastor says “This is one fish the Lord has been trying to hook for a looong time.”

Corrine’s subsequent search for true faith and her growing disillusion with her life as a mother and dutiful wife during the 1970s in upstate NY, never feels condescending or preachy. Instead, Farmiga somehow, magically makes her characters seem sympathetic and real. She even gives some wry and fabulous sexual humor to one character in particular, Corrine’s best friend in the group, Annika (Dagmara Dominczyk). Annika is earthy, sensual—she speaks in tongues to God. Corrine feels most comfortable and even envious of the ease in which Annika slips into her faith.

But the patriarchal ways of congregation will soon cause Corrine to question her faith, her attachment to family and ultimately, her role in this quirky group of country Christians.

The movie to its credit, addresses religion in a respectful way and Rita recommends it to both believers and non- alike.