The Believer

Higher Ground is, I’m failry certain, the movie Vera Farmiga went on to direct, for her debut, after dropping out of Madonna’s W.E., don’t you know, don’t you know.

The Up in the Air Oscar nominee plays Corinne, a born-again Christian who has grown more and more disappointed in her faith, if not the course her life has taken.

At least that’s what her eyes say/told me.

Farmiga, btw, directs from a script by co-written by Carolyn S. Briggs based on her own memoir, The Dark World.

When we first meet Corinne, she is a child. She is curious one and has that blank-canvas thing that kids do. Then we check in on her as a teenager, played by newcomer Taissa Farmiga (sister of, and one of the stars of FX’s upcoming American Horror Story), a young adult, and, finally, a grown-up fortysomething (Vera Farmiga then steps into the role).

Each time, she’s at pivotal...no so much crossroads, but you know, stage where her grace is tested.

At first, Corrine welcomes Jesus into her life.

She wants to welcome Jesus into her life, perhaps because she’s afraid it would mean something if she doesn’t. Then she turns to him for guidance when she finds herself awkward and pregnant and having to marry her band-playing sweetheart Ethan, and, later, for direction when a close call almost claims the life of her baby.

More and more, we see her devote herself to her church, and embrace the New Testament without question or hesitation. She finds herself living in commune with her fellow believers, all decent people who have turned to Jesus for their own reasons.

But Corinne, like I said, is curious. Yes, she chose the course of her life, but you can she’s got a wonder in her eye, too, a longing for the path not taken. When Annika (Dagmara Dominczyk), a close friend of hers, has a stroke and is left a vegetable, she turns to Jesus once again, asking him to appease her suffering. When he doesn’t, that’s when she gets...angry, and she starts to question what kind of God would let a devoted lamb be in such pain.

Annika was a spirited woman, and now she’s trapped. Corinne doesn’t see any fairness in that, and it makes her reevaluate her dogma and her path.

Higher Ground follows a woman on a specific journey. It is a journey that I, as not the most religious cow on the pasture, am unfamiliar with, really. But it is interesting to go on it with Farmiga, who has delivered a movie that made me think it would be going in so many different directions than it did.

That’s always a good thing, alright, but in this case, giving the subject matter, it made me wonder about my original cynicism.

My Rating ***

Photo: Sony Pictures Classics.