Higher Ground
Angelika, September 14, 2011
Movie #69 for 2011
Earlier this year Salvation Boulevard was released. Despite it’s terrific cast (Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris), I was never going to see it. It seemed like a mean-spirited pot shot at a really easy target. If I want to mock Christians, I can do that in my own time. But what I ranted and railed against the most was why the film couldn’t have a brain too - why just mock when you can investigate? And why be disrespectful when you can engage with an issue? It seems VERA FARMIGA (Up in the Air, Source Code and, hilariously, “Roar”), had a similar thought.
Farmiga (pictured) both directs and stars in Higher Ground, adapted by Caroline S. Briggs from her own memoir about a lifetime of desperately craving, but never quite feeling, religious fulfillment or the presence of God. Either the source material was a gold mine, or the adaptation was particularly intelligent and insightful - or both - but, the screenplay is genuinely terrific. And as a director, Farmiga is very much in sync with it. She shares the same affection for the characters and a willingness - even a need - to portray them and their choices with dignity. There are no bad guys here, just people with complicated needs, wants and expectations.
The result is less a religious film and more a heartbreaking and decidedly human story about doubt, joy and connection and the difficulties of living by your own, or someone else’s, moral or spiritual compass.
Farmiga is as great as ever as the main character Corrine, and she is ably supported by unknown and new actors (including more than a few of her own family), and some familiar faces (including JOHN HAWKES, Winter’s Bone, “Deadwood”; DONNA MURPHY, Mrs Doc Oc from Spider-Man 2; and Nina Arianda, Win-Win, Midnight in Paris).
I was surprised that I went to see it in the first place - religion in popular culture is a real turn-off for me - but more surprised by how moved I was by it.
