Higher Ground (film)

In the early Sixties, Corinne Walker is a girl who is skeptical about God. After her brother is stillborn, her parents' marriage disintegrates over the course of several years. As a teenager, she meets Ethan Miller, a budding musician in local rock band The Renegades. The two marry after Corinne gets pregnant and have a daughter, Abigail. While touring with Ethan's band, their bus crashes into a river. Ethan rushes to save Abby, and Corinne pleads with God to save the child. Abby is pulled out of the bus before it sinks into the water, and Ethan believes that God wanted them to live. Ethan and Corinne grow more fond of Jesus, eventually giving themselves over to a radical New Testament church.

As adults, Corinne and Ethan live with their children—Abigail and Lilly—amid a community of self-described "Jesus freaks". Corinne's daily life consists of hours of Bible study and alternative family practices. The husbands are told by Pastor Bill that they should pay more attention to their wives' sexual needs after a fellow husband's indiscretions caused his wife to leave with their children. Corinne's closest friend Annika also warns her about keeping the marriage alive by trying new things, such as drawing their husbands' penises.

One day, Corinne's younger sister, Wendy, shows up on her doorstep after ending yet another bad relationship, and moves in with them. Their father comes over for dinner, and says that children are the most important things in life. He takes responsibility over how losing their baby brother caused him to wreck his marriage. Later, Ethan finds Lilly playing with some cocaine she found in Wendy's suitcase. He and Corinne flush the drugs down the toilet, and Wendy storms off.

As time passes, Corinne gets pregnant again. During a group meeting, Corinne tries to express her thoughts on what they can and cannot see. She gets shut down by Pastor Bill and his wife, because in their doctrine, women are forbidden to preach and cannot teach men. On another occasion, the pastor's wife admonishes Corinne about wearing dresses that could catch the attention of other male members of their community.

Corinne has a boy they name Gabe. Annika is diagnosed with a brain tumor. The community prays for her, and she survives a risky surgery, but suffers brain damage that leaves unable to walk or speak. Corinne becomes devastated and questions her faith: she stops attending services, and grows distant from Ethan. During a fight over Gabe's abilities, Ethan loses control and attempts to strangle Corinne. They try to see a couples therapist, Dr. Dick Adams, but his zealotry does not help them reconcile. Corinne leaves Ethan.

She starts exploring non-religious culture, and during one of her visits at the library, befriends an Irish mailman, Liam Donovan, a poetry enthusiast. Over several more casual encounters, they flirt. Liam lends Corinne some books and reads poems to her. During Gabe's seventh birthday party, Corinne's family pushes her to reconcile with Ethan, but she refuses to kiss him. Corinne's mother, who has remarried, is shown accepting her ex-husband's apologies for ruining their marriage, and his renewed affection.

Corinne is conflicted about returning to the church that her children still attend. She enters once while the building is empty, but a dog at the door catches her attention, and she finds herself outside, surrounded by dogs. Later, she sees Liam reading to children at the library, in the company of a woman who seems to be his girlfriend. Corinne attends a service to see Ethan and the children sing. She grabs the microphone and gives a speech in front of the pastor and the entire community, talking about her life experience with faith, her doubts, and what it means to stand on "higher ground".

In April 2010, it was announced that Vera Farmiga would make her directorial debut with the film.^[5] Higher Ground is loosely based on the memoir This Dark World by author Carolyn S. Briggs, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tim Metcalfe. The film was produced by Carly Hugo, Renn Hawkey, Jon Rubinstein, and Claude Dal Farra, and executive produced by Matt Parker, Lauren Munsch, Brice Dal Farra, and Jonathan Burkhart.^[6] Hawkey also served as the film's musical director. Hawkey's friend and Deadsy bandmate Alec Puro composed the music. Farmiga's cousin Adriana Farmiga served as the film's artist.^[7]

In June 2010, it was reported that Farmiga would also be starring in the film, and that she would be joined in the cast by Joshua Leonard, Norbert Leo Butz, John Hawkes, Dagmara Domińczyk, Bill Irwin, and Donna Murphy.^[8][6] Farmiga persuaded her younger sister Taissa Farmiga to portray Teenage Corinne Walker by offering her a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck in exchange.^[9] Farmiga stated that she asked Taissa to play the younger version of her character because of the genetic and physical similarities, and the relationship she had with her nephew Fynn, who played baby Abigail.^[10]

Principal photography for the film began in June 2010 in the Hudson Valley region, lasting approximately one month.^[11] Filming locations included the city of Kingston, the village of Ellenville, and the hamlets of Kerhonkson and Stone Ridge, New York.^[12] The film also shot scenes at Rondout Valley High School in Accord, New York.^[13]

The film had its world premiere on January 23, 2011, at the Sundance Film Festival.^[14] Shortly after, Sony Pictures Classics acquired North American, Australian and New Zealand distribution rights to the film; the company later bought all rights for France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, the Benelux, Scandinavia, Italy, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia as well.^[15][16] It went on to screen at the Tribeca Film Festival,^[17] and the Los Angeles Film Festival.^[18] The film was given a limited release in the United States opening in three theaters on August 26, 2011.^[19][20] Due to Hurricane Irene, two of the three theaters were closed on Saturday and Sunday on its opening weekend.^[21]

It was released in New Zealand on March 1, 2012.^[22]

The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 10, 2012.^[23] The film had its television premiere in Germany and Japan on January 7, 2013, and May 1, 2013, respectively.