Christine **** (2016, Rebecca Hall, Michael C Hall, Tracy Letts) – Movie Review

An inspired Rebecca Hall gives superlative, career-best performance as Seventies American TV reporter Christine Chubbuck, battling depression and professional frustrations as she tries to advance her career.

Writer Craig Shilowich tip-toes subtly and persuasively through to the core of this heartbreaking story, handled with the utmost care and concern by director Antonio Campos. Hall completely immerses herself in the character. The appalling story is more than 40 years old, but it remains vital and relevant.

The Chicago Film Critics got it right when they voted Rebecca Hall Best Actress ‘for a truly chilling performance depicting a woman on a downwards spiral: her neurotic outbursts and her fragility made an unforgettable impression.’

Michael C Hall and Tracy Letts are outstanding in support as George Peter Ryan and the sexist station manager Michael.

The film played at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, along with the documentary Kate Plays Christine that follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil as she prepared to play Chubbuck.

[Spoiler alert] TV reporter Christine Chubbuck tragically committed suicide on live television on 15 July 1974, in Sarasota, Florida. She was 29.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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