Christine
No,
not the John Carpenter classic. The minute I heard about this film I
was very excited to see this film. For those who are not familiar with
the story, this film is based on the suicide of Christine Chubbuck.
Christine was a depressed reporter who was going through troubling
issues in her private and professional life culminating with her live on
air suicide in 1974. Its a touchy, eerie and fairly disturbing subject,
yet the film needed to not shy away from what happened and recreate the
life of Christine Chubbuck, while not shying away from the gruesome
event.
I've
got to say, I was very impressed with this film. You cannot look away
from this film at all. Its captivating all the way through even the hard
to watch bits. Christine Chubbuck's pain, anguish, and disillusionment
is portrayed perfectly by Rebecca Hall. I've never seen a more
convincing performance from her. She seems to completely embody the
character especially during the uncomfortable bits. A shout out to Tracy
Letts as the hot tempered Michael. There are so many great moments from
Hall including a volatile argument with Letts (and a similar one with
her on screen mother). Wish Hall was getting more buzz for her
performance, it may be up there with the best I've seen all year.
The
film feels like something set in the 70s. There's plenty of shadows in
the picture quality and the color is somewhat muted. It helps add to a
dark and foreboding atmosphere. The little things really add to the
experience of the film. Hall is in almost every frame as we witness her
dark character study. Her health problems impinge her, the pressures of
her work keep suffocating her, her love life never pans out, any attempt
to move up in life goes down in flames.. we witness it all. You can't
help but feel sorry for Chrstine; you can tell she is going through a
hard time and a lot of it is unjust. We stand in anticipation as
everything culminates to her death and the payoff is good.
This
film does a good job of being unabashedly scary at times. There are few
glimmering glimpses for Christine, but these moments fade just as soon
as they come. Hope quickly turns to hopelessness. The negative aspects
weigh up and bring you down and its inescapable. Its scary to think
about how a lot of people have so much going on in their life and how
people around them fail to notice what they are thinking. Support
services are really important.
Before
rambling too much, the final moments are great. Christine seems
resolved and at a stage of acceptance with everything around her. I
guess this would have made the final events even more shocking in real
life. The sudden and shocking nature of the suicide is caught quite
well. I do wish the film ended with her shooting herself and her
dropping to the floor, would have been more powerful. While the film
meanders a bit and doesn't always seem focused, I am more than impressed
with the end result.
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