Actors and other artists, as they get older or wish to be taken more seriously, often get behind the camera, either to produce or to direct. The movies made often turn out to be mere vanity projects: John Travolta’s “Battlefield Earth,” Mariah Carey’s “Glitter,” and, of course, Vanilla Ice’s “Cool as Ice.” That can’t be said for “Higher Ground,” the directorial debut of actress Vera Farmiga. It isn’t a “Good Night and Good Luck” (with George Clooney) or “A Bronx Tale” (Robert De Niro). But the unconventional, at times unsettling film does prove that Farmiga isn’t just a pretty face.
Carolyn S. Briggs loosely adapted her memoir “This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost,” along with, somewhat surprisingly, “Revenge of the Nerds” writer Tim Metcalfe. It’s a story about, as the subtitle suggests, how a person can embrace religious belief for years, building one’s life around it, only to discover it slipping away.
| ON SCREEN |
| ‘Higher Ground’ |
| » Rating: 3 out of 4 stars |
| » Stars: Vera Farmiga, Taissa Farmiga, Joshua Leonard |
| » Director: Vera Farmiga |
| » Rated: R for some language and sexual content |
| » Running time: 109 minutes |
Farmiga stars as the Briggs stand-in, Corinne, and through her and two other actresses, we see a life’s journey. Small-town preacher Pastor Bud (Bill Irwin, who can do just slightly creepy so well) encourages the kids at Sunday School to accept Jesus — but he doesn’t use the hard sell. “Jesus is a gentleman. He’s not going to come barging into your heart without an invitation,” he tells them.
The thoughtful, bookish Corinne lets him in. The young girl (played at this age by McKenzie Turner) senses that something isn’t quite right with this community she’s just joined; Pastor Bud seems awfully fond of her mother. (Though the mother doesn’t seem that fond of Bud’s teachings. When Corinne’s sister says she got saved today, she asks, “Saved from what?”)
But something — some would say grace — draws her in. By the time she’s a teenager (and played by Taissa Farmiga, the director’s sister and nearly a dead ringer), her faith has permeated all aspects of her life. But it will be tested once she’s an adult, in the way so many believers have been tested before.
This tale — and the story of one woman’s faith is a capacious one — is not told from start to finish, but in bits and pieces. We meet Corinne’s husband, Ethan, as an adult (Joshua Leonard) before we discover how they met, in a creative partnership, when they were high schoolers in the 1960s (here he’s played by Boyd Holbrook, who tries valiantly to make his character more than a hippie cliche).
It can seem a bit of a mishmash at times, but it’s all held together thanks to some impressive acting from the three versions of Corinne and a script that tackles a subject most screenwriters won’t touch in any meaningful way. Certainly, there are some easy shots taken at the more literal-minded members of the church. But Farmiga takes the feeling of faith seriously, exploring it with real care. The woman who first came to broad notice in 2006’s “The Departed” might have been a late bloomer in the acting world. But she’s starting her new career at just the right time and pace.
