CHRISTINE is the story of an aspiring newswoman caught in the midst of a personal and professional life crisis. Between unrequited love, frustration at work, a tumultuous home, and self-doubt; she begins to spiral down a dark path.
This film, directed by Antonio Campos, is based on the real-life story of Christine Chubbuck, a 1970s television reporter from Sarasota, Florida who suffers from social awkwardness and hopelessness about her life stemming from chronic depression. She lives with her mother, her only companion, and feels out of place at her job where, no matter how hard she tries and no matter how many new and progressive ideas she comes up with, is ignored, put down, and is left in a position with the inability for advancement.
Rebecca Hall is outstanding as Christine. Her performance alone is worth the price of admission although the entire ensemble of this movie is excellent and perfectly cast. Tracy Letts plays her stubborn boss, Michael J. Hall of DEXTER fame plays the outwardly perfect anchorman, and the wonderful and super talented J. Smith Cameron plays her caring and patient mother. Ms. Hall executes the persona of this highly intelligent women of the 70s whose social life is non-existent and is consistently put down by her close-minded and slightly chauvinistic boss. This, coupled with her delicate mental condition, keeps her in a perpetual state of melancholia and feelings of deep inadequacy.
I truly enjoyed this movie, but felt the subject matter of Christine Chubbuck's on going depression was not given the appropriate amount of scene time so that we, the audience, could better understand her state of mind and see her frustration in its proper context. In real life Christine was seeing a therapist and had suffered numerous breakdowns prior to moving to Sarasota. It would have given this film more depth if we had seen some of her prior displays of depression to get the full picture of her and the frustration, along with bravery, it took to continue to fight this daily battle with mental illness while pursuing a career that she excelled at.
Rebecca Hall totally nails the horror and dread of being an insecure/depressed person who's desperate to make her mark but just can't connect. It's heartbreaking. Medication probably would have made a huge difference in her life. Instead, she inspired a great film.
A very moving story of an intense person with a good heart. For someone like that, often romantic success is often out of reach. For her, that was true of career success as well, as she was driven and pure. It was a very well done portrayal with some nice touches and a surprisingly good soundtrack as well. There are Chubbucks all around us, who we smile at and exchange a few words with, but do we really know how they're doing? I could relate. I thought it was a great portrayal, nice script, well acted and well portrayed. Also a good period piece.
A solid film with great acting from Rebecca Hall. It's a pretty depressing film so you have to be in the right mindset to enjoy it. It can drag at times but Rebecca Hall's performance carries it to the finish line.