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The real-life drama "Christine" has a well-polished facade, gleaming in 1970s period details, but only the movie's star seems able to get underneath that surface.
Rebecca Hall stars as Christine Chubbuck, a Sarasota, Fla., TV reporter who earned an eerie chapter in broadcast history in 1974 when she orchestrated her suicide live on the evening news. Director Antonio Campos and screenwriter Craig Shilowich show Christine struggling to break out of fluffy news stories, arguing with her news director, Mike (Tracy Letts), about the sensationalist coverage he's ordering to boost ratings. She also faces a health issue and a crush on her anchor, George (Michael C. Hall), as she fights the sexist attitudes of her employers.
The period details, from the bell-bottoms to the soundtrack selections, are on point, though they also put up a wall that makes the chronicle of Chubbuck's spiraling depression feel remote. Hall's performance, though, is confident and steely, as she captures Chubbuck's determination to succeed and the pain of her failures.
'Christine'
Opens Friday, Nov. 4, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas; rated R for a scene of disturbing violence and for language including some sexual references, 115 minutes.