Higher Ground

I am a Christian who have had some experience with the kind of community this movie portrays, and while watching this film, I think this is something for Christian community to watch and think about it. I don't think the film attack the faith or the religion, but it make us question whether all the singing, ceremony, bible reading, church activities,that we do everyday matter at all if there is no "Love and Honesty" in them. Doesn't the Lord tell us that nothing mater if it's not done with love? Doesn't the Bible tell us that you shouldn't come to my altar if you haven't reconcile with your brother? Doesn't God tell us not to judge others? Through her life, Corinne's growing and losing of faith reflect that even honest doubt is still better than pretending to have faith, better than faith with a narrow-mind, faith that is blind to see one's own fault,or faith that judges other people to go to Hell. How many times, after we sing and praise the Lord, and read the Bible, we go home and then hurt those people in our family? How many times we doubt but don't dare to admit to others because we want to be accepted in the community? I think watching this film and discussing about it with an open mind can help Christian community view themselves more honestly. If you watch the whole films, you will find that the moment that reflect "God" the most are the ones when the characters truly love,care,and accept one another, not the scene where praise song are sung or clever words are spoken. The most beautiful things in the movie was the good friendship between Corinne and Annika,the honest sharing of thought between Corinne and the Irish postman,and Corrine's courage to speak out about her doubt in front of her church for the last time. Those are the moment when God is reflected, not in ceremony, gospel singing, or church attending. And the scenes that make me feel a bit shamed of being a Christian because you know such mistakes do exist are: Wendy, Corinne's drug dealing sister, left her home after Corinne and her husband tried to preach to her in anger and force a faith upon her, the scene when the husband strangle Corinne's neck in the care after she tells him the truth how she feels, the scene when the counselor preached Hell fire to her and throw all the faults at her.

In the end, you will understand why Corinne choose to stay "out with the dogs." (That dog in front of the church is really cute, by the way.) The only sad thing about this film that disappoint me was that it doesn't show "true faith" and "how to go through doubt after accepting that it exists in your heart." In every Christian community, I believe there are those whose faith are real and strong, not just pretending or make-believe. There are those people whose hearts are so beautiful and know what the real teaching of Jesus is and how it should be applied in life, but are wise enough to know that forcing a faith upon a non-believer or judging a sinner to go to Hell is contracting to what God asks us to do. These people do exist in Christian communities and they can really be a good example of others, even to non-believers.

Recommend the film highly, but watch it with an open heart, please.

Actor/Director Vera Farmiga plays middle age mother Corrine in this drama of a Christian woman's spiritual journey spanning three decades. In a scene that foreshadows the rest of the film, when attempting to learn to play the accordion Corrine is told, "maybe you haven't found the right instrument yet." Throughout the film Corrine seeks to find her self through various religious expressions during the 'Jesus movement' era. When her yearning for intimacy and authenticity is not found in the Christian community, Corrine journeys to find a faith that is true to herself and resonates with what she knows as truth.

Higher Ground is a rare gem in the midst of Hollywood's often shallow and stereotypical portrayal of faith. Screenwriters and filmmakers would do well to look to Higher Ground (both literally and figuratively) when exploring issues of faith. Truthful in its portrayal, Higher Ground neither demonizes Christians nor paints an overly rosy picture of what a life of faith and struggles with doubt look like. It is a quality, honest portrayal, which invites personal reflection and communal dialog. The quality production will draw you in and musical score will take you back to religious experiences of your youth. It would be hard to not be moved by this film and walk out inspired to continue on one's own faith journey wherever that might lead.

Congratulations to Ms. Farmiga on such an excellent debut as a director.

As a completely involved in church evangelical Christian, it was exciting to see major elements of my lifestyle portrayed accurately on screen for a change. This film takes a kind and thoughtful middle road, not portraying the Christian life at extremes as it so often is- both negatively in many mainstream films and over the top positive in Christian films.

I wish I could send an email to all my church friends telling them to go see this film. But, as the film intimates, there are social and cultural taboos present within Christian churches. Some of the dialog and a few of the images would be so offensive to a small minority of my Christian friends that I would not dare to broadcast a recommendation but rather discreetly recommend it to those who would not be offended.

And a sizable segment of the really committed Christian population does not attend (at least in public) any R rated movie. This movie looks like it could have easily been brought to the screen as a PG-13 and reached a much wider audience.

And I hope this can reach as wide an audience as possible both for its portrayal of the Christian lifestyle and so we get to see more films from Vera Farmiga.

Catching up on Vera Farmiga's work is my current goal, and seeing as how she directed this one I felt more obligated to see it at this time. She's captivating and heart-breaking, infusing her subtle charm and many nuances to great effect. I don't think the film is all that great, particularly because I see quite a few holes in some of the character relationships and some of the writing arcs, but it's serviceable and Farmiga's directing reminds me somewhat of Sarah Polley's. I do think Farmiga is quite easily the best thing about it, both her directing and acting and for that it's worth a watch. Her younger sister also shows some acting talent.

Vera Farmiga is a great actress, I think everyone knows that, but now with Higher Ground we get to see what a true talent she has as a director. The story that is told here is one like I've never seen before, a religious film that doesn't really come off with a bias attitude for or against the church, it does paint a beautiful portrait of a woman who found faith at a young age and in her adult life is slowly losing that faith. The character of Corinne is not a weak woman, she is a tough woman who speaks her mind and doesn't let herself be quietened down by the men in the church, this type of character is what is needed in films about women today and Vera Farmiga performs this difficult role so spectacularly it's a crime if it is ignored come award time.

Everything about this movie is just amazing, the acting, the script, the costumes, the production design, everything just fits together perfectly and all aspects compliment each other very well. I am not a religious person at all, I have zero interest in any religion, I really only went to see it because of it being Miss Farmiga's directorial debut but almost instantly I was totally taken in by the story. One thing I noticed is the surprising amount of humor, I found myself laughing so hard so many times, the scriptwriters knew just when to lighten the load and throw in an intelligent laugh, at those times the entire theater was in hysterics. I can see why this film has such a low rating, a lot of Americans would probably be offended by it but oh well, you win some you lose some, full props to Vera for taking in such a daring subject for her first feature.

This movie deserves to be seen by all types, religious, non religious and even just those after a terrific film to watch, it's a film that would get you talking afterward, one for discussion, me and my partner are still talking about it.

I am so looking forward to seeing what Vera does next, she is obviously a very talented woman in many ways and with Higher Ground she shows amazing promise as a director.

In a word, EXCEPTIONAL!!!