Higher Ground (2011)

This hit really close-to-home for me.  Corinne gets pregnant young, marries her boyfriend, and her young family becomes active in church life.  They got just SO MUCH right in this film -- the trying so hard to fit in with the other churchy women and just somehow not quite getting it.  Her attempts to be vulnerable and honest were so much like my own efforts to be part of the club and then seeing her being chastised for doing it wrong also was terribly familiar.

I went from being wowed to almost weirded out by how much like my own experience this story was with the "Annika" storyline.  Annika was Corinne's only real friend in the church.  Neither were the Stepfords the other wives seemed to be and their chats could get downright bawdy, even as they both had a strong faith.  When Annika's brain surgery leaves her a near vegetable, Corinne's devastated and very much alone.  I had a church friendship very much like this one -- my beloved friend didn't have a tumor but she did have a break with reality and is no longer the friend I knew.

Anyway.  This was so well-done and affecting.  I’m interested in reading the source memoir. 

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