This article, first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Sept. 15, 2011 - "In man's heaven everybody sings! ... This universal singing is not casual, not occasional, not relieved by intervals of quiet; it goes on, all day long, and every day. ... And everybody stays; whereas in the earth the place would be empty in two hours..." - Mark Twain
About halfway through "Higher Ground," Vera Farmiga's heartfelt look at an Evangelical Christian woman's ongoing crisis of faith, I started thinking of Mark Twain, and his sardonic view of heaven as a place filled with the constant and eventually unbearable din of people singing hymns.
The congregants in "Higher Ground" always seem to be singing. Now, much of the greatest music in the history of man was written in praise of God, but these folks are not singing classic hymns or Negro Spirituals. They are singing contemporary Christian folk rock.
I'm sorry, but this music is insipid. No wonder Corrine (Farmiga), the doubt-plagued protagonist of the movie, has trouble hearing the words of God - her musician husband and their tone-challenged friends won't shut up. A couple of Bach cantatas and Sister Willie Mae Ford Smith's rendition of "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" might do wonders for this poor woman.
The blandness of the music leads to a larger point. Director-star Farmiga, working from a memoir by Carolyn S. Briggs called "This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost," works so hard to take Corrine's fundamentalist Christian group seriously that she fails to make them interesting - their sermons and statements of faith are as unimaginative as their songs. Corrine is bright and inquisitive, and she is surrounded by people who seem without curiosity. They smile a lot and speak in cliches. No wonder she feels unfulfilled in their company.
Only one character - Corrine's earthy friend Annika (the wonderful Dagmara Dominczyk) - seems to embody the Evangelical spirit, and Corrine adores her. Annika speaks in tongues and finds ecstasy in the bedroom as well as the temple. (The funniest scene in the movie involves Christian advice about sex, and includes the line "Oral stimulation is part of God's plan.") But we get too little of Annika and too much of the other members of the congregation. They are boring.
"Higher Ground" is very well acted. Its stars include Tony-winning St. Louisan Norbert Leo Butz as a pastor. On a technical level, it is skillfully directed, and Farmiga shows much promise as a filmmaker. The movie is worth seeing, but, particularly in a year that has seen a movie about a spiritual search ("The Tree of Life") that approaches greatness, it is a bit of a disappointment.
Harper Barnes, the author of Never Been A Time: The 1917 Race Riot That Sparked The Civil Rights Movement, is a special contributor to the Beacon.