This complicated, interesting-if-not-satisfyng indie movie is directed by and stars Vera Farminga as an evangelical Christian struggling with her faith after a long period of drinking the Kool Aid. This is one of those indies that lives in the small moments (a slight glance of frustration here, a tiny moment of displeasure there) that slightly affected indies love to explore, the kind of movie that critics call “finely observed” and audiences call “boring.” Unlike The Guard (which might as well be made by a studio for its insistence on easy jokes and predictable action pieces), Higher Ground is a true indie, meaning there will be more critics reviewing it than people paying to watch it. Still, I have to admit that the movie is an original, and deals with the complexity of religious faith in a way few movies can pull off and fewer still even care to pull off.
What Works: The director certainly did her research. As someone familiar with religious people, this movie is accurate in its depiction, neither portraying them as saintly figures to be emulated or crudely stupid figures to be ridiculed. For a movie made by a self-professed liberal agnostic (Farminga), it nicely avoids the trap of only looking at the “religious issues” liberals care about, intolerance towards homosexuals and abortion, and actually makes an effort to see what drives these people. The unmistakable (and very true) conclusion is that they are essentially adults using their devotion as a security blanket to keep the problems of the world out but the problems keep seeping in anyway. As a real critic might say, “Finely observed.”
What Doesn’t Work: To say the movie isn’t sluggish would be a lie and there’s a visit from the lead character’s wayward sister that doesn’t really gel into anything else in the movie (it’s a real opportunity wasted). Also, the movie’s reluctance to explore conflict might be truthful to the nature of the characters but to say it represents gripping drama is a stretch. And the great John Hawkes is marginalized as Vera’s father and the good Bill Irwin has one measly scene.
What I Would Have Done Differently: There is SOMEthing missing that is hard to put your finger on throughout the movie and I think it could have greatly benefited from one big, showy, movie-ish, not true to life scene where Farminga’s character just lays it all out on the line and actually says all the things she’s been bottling up out loud. Maybe she says it in a prayer (as Robert Duvall did in The Apostle) or to her disconnected husband or to the church’s blissfully self-centered preacher or maybe just to her kids, but there needs to be SOME moment that draws everything together and leaves the audience knocked out. As is, Higher Ground is a fine, sturdy, decently made movie but it stubbornly refuses to make the leap into spellbinding.