Sundance 2016 – Christine

In July of 1974, Florida news reporter Christine Chubbuck went live on the air and shot herself, marking the first suicide ever recorded on television.  Christine chronicles Chubbuck’s life the weeks leading up to her tragic end.

Rebecca Hall plays Christine and she is unbelievable.  Hall gets lost in the role and gives the best performance of her career.  She becomes Christine by changing her voice and giving Christine mannerisms, like walking with her head down and lack of social skills, to let us know who Christine was as a person.  Hall has some powerful scenes of raw emotion, whether it be desperation, sadness, or the few moments of happiness we see.  Christine is a perfectionist, one who wants to give the best news possible and wants a bigger life for herself.  She is respected by her peers, but people don’t care enough to ask her what’s wrong or help her out after an argument.  She’s always the one to console everyone else, never get consoled.  She suffered from some sort of undiagnosed depression, which led to her eventual suicide.  This is a juicy role and with Hall taking the reigns, it is a brilliant piece of acting.

Aside from Hall’s performance, the movie is a half decent look at newsrooms at the time, but nothing too exciting.  The movie actually moves pretty slow, causing me to check my watch more than a few times throughout the near two hour running time.  The production design and costumes give us a real sense of the time and era that we were in.  The rest of the ensemble give solid performances.

Christine is a slow, interesting look at a tragic life that relies all on the performance of Rebecca Hall.  She makes this character and movie compelling.  If it weren’t for her performance, this would have been a dreadful experience.

MY RATING – 2.5/4

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