Higher Ground (film)

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. 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.[15] It went on to screen at the Tribeca Film Festival,[16] and the Los Angeles Film Festival.[17] The film was given a limited release in the United States opening in three theaters on August 26, 2011.[18][19] Due to Hurricane Irene, two of the three theaters were closed on Saturday and Sunday on its opening weekend.[20]

It was released in New Zealand on March 1, 2012.[21]

The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 10, 2012.[22] The film had its television premiere in Germany and Japan on January 7, 2013, and May 1, 2013, respectively.

Higher Ground made $21,495 in its opening weekend.[1] The film was shown in three theaters in the U.S. for a per theater average of $7,165.[1] The film's widest release was in 81 theaters.[23] It made a further $821,198 combined from U.S. and Canadian box office receipts, for a total international gross of $844,330.[1]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 81% based on 91 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.04/10. The critical consensus reads, "With Higher Ground, star and debuting director Vera Farmiga takes viewers on a challenging spiritual journey whose missteps are easily overcome by its many rich rewards."[24] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 10, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[25]

A. O. Scott of The New York Times also gave a positive review, writing, "There is something remarkable – you might even say miraculous – about the way Higher Ground makes its gentle, thoughtful way across the burned-over terrain of the American culture wars. The film, directed with disarming grace and sharp intelligence by Vera Farmiga (who also stars in it), is about the conflict between skepticism and religious faith, but it does not treat that battle as an either/or, winner-take-all proposition. Movies about belief and believers frequently succumb to woozy piety or brittle contempt, but Higher Ground belongs, along with Robert Duvall's The Apostle and Michael Tolkin's under appreciated Rapture among the elect."[26] Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review, awarding it 3.5 stars out of 4, writing, "Vera Farmiga's Higher Ground is the life story of a woman who grows into, and out of, Christianity. It values her at every stage of that process. It never says she is making the right or wrong decision, only that what she does seems necessary at the time she does it. In a world where believers and agnostics are polarized and hold simplified ideas about each other, it takes a step back and sees faith as a series of choices that should be freely made."[27] David Edelstein of Vulture wrote, "Actress Vera Farmiga's directing debut, the religious drama Higher Ground, is amazingly graceful. The movie centers on Corinne (played by Farmiga), who joins and, a decade later, breaks away from a fundamentalist religious order, but the tone isn't irreverent, exactly. The movie is flushed with hope, wonder, heartbreak. In the memoir on which it's based, This Dark World, Carolyn S. Briggs (who co-wrote the screenplay with Tim Metcalfe) rejects God but can't stop longing for Him. And Farmiga frames the film version as a kind of love story, beginning with Corinne opening her eyes underwater, at the moment of her baptism, seeing men smiling down like heaven's welcoming committee. She doesn't ever want to come up for air."[28]