Higher Ground (film)

Higher Ground
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vera Farmiga
Produced by	Claude Dal Farra Renn Hawkey Carly Hugo Matt Parker Jon Rubinstein
Screenplay by	Carolyn S. Briggs Tim Metcalfe
Based on	This Dark World by Carolyn S. Briggs
Starring	Vera Farmiga Joshua Leonard Norbert Leo Butz Dagmara Domińczyk John Hawkes Bill Irwin Ebon Moss-Bachrach Donna Murphy
Music by	Alec Puro
Cinematography	Michael McDonough
Edited by	Colleen Sharp
Production company	BCDF Pictures The Group Entertainment Ruminant Films
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics
Release dates	January 23, 2011 (2011-01-23) (Sundance) August 26, 2011 (2011-08-26) (United States)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.8 million
Box office	$842,693

Higher Ground is a 2011 American drama film directed by Vera Farmiga in her directorial debut. The film is an adaptation of the 2002 memoir This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost by Carolyn S. Briggs, who co-wrote the screenplay. The film follows Corinne Walker (Farmiga) and her vacillating relationship with Christianity. The cast also includes Joshua Leonard, John Hawkes, Donna Murphy, Norbert Leo Butz, and Bill Irwin.

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2011, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. It then screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 25, 2011, and received a limited release in the United States on August 26, 2011 by Sony Pictures Classics.

Plot

1961–72

Corinne Walker is a young girl who is skeptical about God. After the stillbirth of her brother, her parents' marriage disintegrates over the course of several years. As a teenager (Taissa Farmiga), she meets Ethan (Boyd Holbrook), a budding musician in local rock band The Renegades. They get married after Corinne becomes pregnant, and have their daughter Abigail. While touring with Ethan's band, their bus crashes into a river. Ethan rushes to save Abby, and Corinne pleads with God to save her. Abby is pulled out of the bus before it sinks into the water, and Ethan believes that God wanted them to live. Ethan and Corinne grow more and more interested in Jesus, eventually giving themselves over to a radical New Testament church.

1979–87

As adults, Corinne (Vera Farmiga) and Ethan (Joshua Leonard) are living with their children Abigail and Lilly amidst a community of self-described "Jesus freaks". Corinne's daily life consists of hours of Bible study, alternative family practices, and bracing for the oncoming Rapture. The husbands are told by Pastor Bill (Norbert Leo Butz) that they should pay more attention to their wives' sexual needs after a fellow husband's indiscretions caused his wife to leave with their children. Corinne's closest friend Annika (Dagmara Domińczyk) also warns her about keeping the marriage alive by trying new things, such as drawing their husbands' penises.

One day, Corinne's younger sister Wendy (Nina Arianda) shows up on her doorstep after ending yet another bad relationship. Abby and Lilly say they pray for Wendy every day since she hasn't given herself over to Jesus, and therefore, will go to hell. Their father comes over for dinner, and says that children are the most important things in life. He also takes responsibility over how losing their baby brother caused him to wreck his marriage. When Annika attempts to teach Corinne how to drive, they get pulled over by a policeman who Annika is able to charm by pretending to have a heavy accent. She explains that knowing how to flirt is key when dealing with men.

As time passes, Corinne gets pregnant again. During a group meeting, Corinne tries to express her thoughts on what they can and cannot see. She gets shut down by Pastor Bill and his wife, but they say that they know about how badly she wants to submit to God. Ethan then finds Lilly playing with cocaine that she found in Wendy's suitcase. He and Corinne flush the drugs down the toilet, and Wendy storms off. The pastor's wife tells Corinne one night that she should not wear a particular dress again since a male member of the church complimented her on it. While looking in the mirror, she then sees herself wearing sexy lingerie. Corinne soon has a baby boy named Gabe. She gets a call one day, and finds out that Annika has a brain tumor. The community prays for her, and she survives risky surgery. However, she is also mute and confined to a wheelchair. This leads Corinne to question her faith, and her overall belief in God.

Cast

• Vera Farmiga as Corinne Walker
  • Taissa Farmiga as Teenage Corinne
  • McKenzie Turner as Young Corinne
• Joshua Leonard as Ethan Miller
  • Boyd Holbrook as Teenage Ethan
• Dagmara Domińczyk as Annika
• Norbert Leo Butz as Pastor Bill
• John Hawkes as CW Walker
• Bill Irwin as Pastor Bud

• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Luke
• Donna Murphy as Kathleen Walker
• Nina Arianda as Wendy Walker
  • Kaitlyn Rae King as Teenage Wendy
  • Taylor Schwencke as Young Wendy
• Michael Chernus as Ned
• Sean Mahon as Liam Donovan
• Jack Gilpin as Dr. Dick Adams
• Molly Hawkey as Molly

Production

Development

In April 2010, it was announced that Vera Farmiga would make her directorial debut with the film. Higher Ground is loosely based on the memoir This Dark World by author Carolyn S. Briggs, who then co-wrote the screenplay with Tim Metcalfe. The film was produced by Carly Hugo, Renn Hawkey, Jon Rubinstein, and Claude Dal Farra, and executively produced by Matt Parker, Lauren Munsch, Brice Dal Farra, and Jonathan Burkhart. Hawkey also served as the film's musical director. Farmiga's cousin Adriana Farmiga served as the film's artist.

Casting

In June 2010, it was reported that Farmiga would also be starring in the film, and that she would be joined in the cast by Joshua Leonard, Norbert Leo Butz, John Hawkes, Dagmara Domińczyk, Bill Irwin, and Donna Murphy. Farmiga persuaded her younger sister Taissa Farmiga to portray Teenage Corinne Walker by offering her a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck in exchange. Farmiga stated that she asked Taissa to play the younger version of her character because of the genetic and physical similarities, and the relationship she had with her nephew Fynn, who played baby Abigail.

Filming

Principal photography for the film began in June 2010 in the Hudson Valley region, lasting approximately one month. Filming locations included the city of Kingston, the village of Ellenville, and the hamlets of Kerhonkson and Stone Ridge, New York. The film also shot scenes at the Rondout Valley High School in Accord, New York.

Distribution

Release

The film had its world on January 23, 2011 at the Sundance Film Festival. Shortly after, Sony Pictures Classics acquired North American, Australian and New Zealand distribution rights to the film. It went on to screen at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival. The film was given a limited release in the United States on August 26, 2011. It was released in New Zealand on March 1, 2012.

Home media

The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 10, 2012. The film had its television premiere in Germany and Japan on January 7, 2013 and May 1, 2013, respectively.

Reception

Box office

Higher Ground made $21,495 in its opening weekend. The film was shown in three theaters in the U.S. for a per theater average of $7,165. The film's widest release was in 81 theaters. It made a further $821,198 combined from U.S. and Canadian box office receipts, for a total international gross of $842,693.

Critical response

Higher Ground received positive reviews from critics. The film received an 81% approval rating and was "Certified Fresh" by review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. It was also given a score of 74 out of 100 on Metacritic indicating "generally favorable reviews". A. O. Scott of The New York Times also gave a positive review, stating: "There is something remarkable – you might even say miraculous – about the way Higher Ground makes its gentle, thoughtful way across the burned-over terrain of the American culture wars. The film, directed with disarming grace and sharp intelligence by Vera Farmiga (who also stars in it), is about the conflict between skepticism and religious faith, but it does not treat that battle as an either/or, winner-take-all proposition. Movies about belief and believers frequently succumb to woozy piety or brittle contempt, but Higher Ground belongs, along with Robert Duvall's The Apostle and Michael Tolkin's under appreciated Rapture among the elect. Focused with sympathetic intensity on the ordeal of a single soul, it illuminates, as though from within, a complex spiritual struggle. I don't mean to make it sound as if the movie, which was written by Ms. Briggs and Tim Metcalfe, were preaching or making an argument. Nor does it aim for a soft middle ground of nervous tolerance. Instead, it presents the subjective facts of Corinne's life as precisely and clearly as it can, refusing to condescend or sentimentalize anyone, and inviting you to sift through the nuances and find the answers for yourself."

Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review, awarding it 3.5 stars out of 4, writing: "Vera Farmiga's Higher Ground is the life story of a woman who grows into, and out of, Christianity. It values her at every stage of that process. It never says she is making the right or wrong decision, only that what she does seems necessary at the time she does it. In a world where believers and agnostics are polarized and hold simplified ideas about each other, it takes a step back and sees faith as a series of choices that should be freely made. I would like to say Higher Ground, which marks Farmiga's directorial debut, never steps wrong in following this process, but it does. Sometimes it slips too easily into satire, but at least it's nuanced satire based on true believers who are basically nice and good people. There are no heavy-handed portraits of holy rollers here, just people whose view of the world is narrow. There are also no outsize sinners, just some gentle singer-songwriters who are too fond of pot and whose lyrics are parades of cliches." David Edelstein of Vulture wrote: "Actress Vera Farmiga's directing debut, the religious drama Higher Ground, is amazingly graceful. The movie centers on Corinne (played by Farmiga), who joins and, a decade later, breaks away from a fundamentalist religious order, but the tone isn't irreverent, exactly. The movie is flushed with hope, wonder, heartbreak. In the memoir on which it's based, This Dark World, Carolyn S. Briggs (who co-wrote the screenplay with Tim Metcalfe) rejects God but can't stop longing for Him. And Farmiga frames the film version as a kind of love story, beginning with Corinne opening her eyes underwater, at the moment of her baptism, seeing men smiling down like heaven's welcoming committee. She doesn't ever want to come up for air."

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2011	Alliance of Women Film Journalists	Best Woman Director	Vera Farmiga	Nominated
	Gotham Awards	Breakthrough Director		Nominated
	Satellite Awards	Best Actress – Motion Picture		Nominated
	Sundance Film Festival	Grand Jury Prize – Dramatic		Nominated
2012	Artios Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Low Budget Feature	Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee	Nominated
	Central Ohio Film Critics Association	Best Overlooked Film	Higher Ground	Nominated

External links

• Official website
• Higher Ground at IMDb
• Higher Ground at Rotten Tomatoes