Higher
Ground
She's beautiful, a great actress, and, now, a great director. Commence
jealousy of Vera Farmiga.
In Higher Ground, Farmiga stars as Corinne - a young lady from
a troubled home, who finds love and tragedy at a very early age. After
a shocking accident, her husband, Ethan (Joshua Leonard), turns to God,
while Corinne comes along on her own search for faith.
While most movies dealing with the issues of faith and religion often
find themselves corralled into the Religious or Christian genres only
targeted to those audiences, Farmiga attempts to bring that discussion
into the mainstream, if you can find the movie playing near you.
As director, Farmiga brings a light touch to relieve some dramatic and
heartfelt examinations of what Corinne believes. Deftly moving between
moments of doubt, confrontations with those who want to control her,
struggles with decisions about her life and humorous, endearing scenes,
Farmiga, along with writers Tim Metcalfe and Carolyn Briggs (based on
her novel), tackles the issues without mocking those who believe. Those
who are religious in Higher Ground are not cult members or extreme,
comical cartoonish caricatures. Farmiga takes great effort to allow
these characters to be real people.
As actor, Farmiga fills Corinne with a spirit, intelligence and honesty
that makes every person in the audience feel for her plight, especially
at the moment of her big sermon, which has so much emotion I can't
believe you won't at least fight off one tear.
If you don't find Higher Ground playing near you, keep an eye
out for it on DVD later in the year.
See
the extended version of my interview with Vera Farmiga at DC50tv.com.
Higher Ground is rated R for some language and
sexual content
|
|
