A Reel Review: HIGHER GROUND

Prior to her role as a police-psychologist in THE DEPARTED, Vera Farmiga was a relative unknown. It was only after the Oscar hoopla when everyone started asking, who’s that girl, and discovering that she had a decent body of work over the past eight years. In her directorial debut, HIGHER GROUND, Vera takes her talent to a new level, and is clearly not afraid to tackle a most serious and often controversial subject; faith and religion.

Growing up in the Bible belt, young Corinne seeks to learn outside of the near-forced religion, and becomes increasingly frustrated by banned books at the library. Growing into young adulthood, she narrowly escapes a bus accident with her husband and child, and thus begins a strong faith-based life. Now an adult with several children, Corinne (Vera) and her husband Ethan (Joshua Leonard) find their marriage and world on the rocks when Corinne loses faith after her best friend falls seriously ill.

HIGHER GROUND tells the tale of a tightly wound spiritual community who gets thrown a curveball when one of their own begins to question her faith. It is also Corinne’s story as she struggles with her world. Her faith comes and goes throughout her life, and when she begins to look outside of the dogmatic routines her family and friends are in, she discovers the things that she and her children have been missing out on; simple things like art and literature. Her transition and journey are very compelling and interesting to watch.

But make no mistake; this is not an anti-religion film as much as it is a personal journey story; centering on the choices that we make. It preaches without really preaching.

Vera’s direction includes a lot of brilliant allegory, along with a very good sense of fleshing out the supporting characters that Corinne is surrounded by. This community does everything by the (good) book; constantly preaching, quoting verses, and singing songs. They are a community that will either save your soul or drive you nuts. Vera knows exactly how to treat these characters; letting them create the world Corinne struggles with.

Vera manages to be just as talented in front of the camera just as she is behind it. Her struggles often go without any spoken dialogue, and her strong facial expressions give away her internal struggles. She also manages to get great performances out of the child-actors; pulled off only the way a mom can.

What is really unique about HIGHER GROUND is that it raises a great deal of questions, but doesn’t bother to answer them. While that may frustrate some viewers, the flip side to that is Vera is not a director who pretends to have all the answers. That is a rarity these days.

BOTTOM LINE: See it