Butler's Cinema Scene

Vera Farmiga in "Higher Ground"

“HIGHER GROUND” My rating: B- (Opens Oct. 14 at the Tivoli and Glenwood at Red Bridge)

109 minutes | Audience rating: R

The loss of religious faith is a challenging, hot-button topic for a filmmaker’s directing debut.

So much could go wrong.

“Higher Ground,” from actress Vera Farmiga, doesn’t go wrong, exactly, but it never really adds up.

Working from a screenplay by Carolyn S. Briggs (adapting her memoir This Dark World), the film chronicles the gradual falling away from Christianity of Corinne (Farmiga), a young wife and mother.

In a prologue we see young Corinne attending a summer church camp (Bill Irwin is the sincere but scarily insistent preacher), where she declares herself born again to the cynical amusement of her hard-nosed mother (Donna Murphy).

As a teen Corinne (played by Taissa Farmiga, the director’s younger sister) falls for hippie-dippy local kid Ethan; they get pregnant, marry and get religion when they are miraculously saved from a potentially deadly car accident. They fall under the sway of what at the time — the ‘70s — were called Jesus Freaks.

Corinne and Ethan (Farmiga, Joshua Leonard) live in a community of young people held together by their faith in Christ. They all have their own homes — this isn’t a communal setup — but they gather several times a week for prayer, services and Bible study.

Dagmara Dominczyk and Vera Farmiga

As religious communities go, this one appears to be fairly easy going, nonjudgmental and altruistic…but even so Corinne starts having  doubts.

Her best friend Annika (a scene-stealing Dagmara Dominczyk) combines piety with a happily ribald sexuality. Annika decorates her bedroom with drawings of her husband’s penis.

When Corinne attempts to likewise immortalize Ethan’s privates, we immediately realize one reason for her discontent (though abandoning one’s religion over your hubby’s small genitals seems a bit of a stretch).

It’s only when tragedy befalls her beloved Annika that Corinne begins seriously doubting that God has a plan for us all. Or that if he does, she wants no part of it.

Still, peer pressure and the needs of her children keep Corinne just where she is. Perhaps she needs a major change to make a big break…one seems to present itself in a loquacious mailman (Sean  Mahon) whom she frequently meets at the library for literary discussions.

Individual scenes in “Higher Ground” are terrifically effective. Farmiga, it should come as no surprise, is a compelling actress, and her supporting cast (among the familiar faces are John Hawkes and Norbert Leo Butz) provide solid backing.

But ultimately the difficulty of showing what is essentially an internal struggle is too much. We cannot connect the dots in Corinne’s experience and personality; too much is left unsaid and unexplained, and as a result the character’s liberation feels more selfish than celebratory.

| Robert W. Butler