Expected more

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Blistering performances.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

You immerse yourself in Chubbuck's life, and you can kind of feel his pressure. The feeling feels worse knowing how everything would end. Rebecca Hall surprises, showing that there is no much need for such a great camera direction. The final moment of the film, with Jean watching television with an ice cream pot, shows that each one has its personality and its way of handling the things of life.

Sorry, I wanted to be interested in this movie, but it was boring about a boring person. The only thing "interesting" about her, is that she committed suicide on national television. She was boring with terrible delivery skills (if the portrayal is accurate). She was never going to burn up the charts. They way she's played by the actress doesn't help. She's obviously trying to imitate her in some way with this odd, droning voice which sounds fake. The wig is also terrible. Christine may have been a loved and lovely person to the people who knew her, but frankly, filming her life and making a movie of it would be like filming mine. Who gives a happy crap? A film of me going to work and being annoyed by my idiot bosses and doing some nice stuff for kids would bore everyone on this planet (including me). Very nice, but not interesting. Neither my life to others or hers to me.The background music was annoying. I hate when movies based in the 70's constantly have the music or sitcoms from that era playing in the background, loudly, drowning out dialogue. We get it. It's the 70's. Now turn off the dial. We can see the cloths, hairstyles, awful makeup, cars, and crappy, ugly furniture. We get it already. Play some of the music from that period during the opening and closing credits. Every once in a while in the movie, play a few bars, but this movie laid it on thick, which tells me it was desperate. Maybe because in reality, she was boring, had a crappy job like the rest of us, and zero personality on TV?BTW she may have been depressed, may have had bipolar disorder, but I'm seeing Asperger's.Interesting note, she died a virgin, had a love interest who died in a car accident. He was Jewish and apparently her dad was vehemently opposed. Her brother also hated her crush at the office. The tape is in safekeeping and never will be shown as it was never recorded on VHS and the family (smart move) took legal action to keep it out of the hands of the pubic. (This according to a recent interview with her brother.*)The suicide scene was anticlimactic in a movie that was anticlimactic from the first scene. In a way, it was done well as they could have entirely exploited it by showing in it slow motion, up close, repeating it and they did none of that. I do wonder if ruined by years of watching fake deaths on TV, seeing someone shoot themselves, who actually did it in real life and it doesn't register says something really awful about a society that does love blood and guts. Don't blame the media. Blame us. We got just want we asked for. Think about it. *Tip to family, if you have a troubled family member, butting in their business about love interests doesn't help someone who already had poor social skills. We know you mean well, but you only isolate an already isolated person with difficulties relating to people further. What are they going to do when you die? Live and let live. And don't be so selfish. It's not your life. It's theirs.Sorry Christine...I'm sure you were lovely, but your life was boring.

I have to start by saying that all the negative reviews calling the film "boring," "too slow," or "uninteresting" must have been submitted by people who have not experienced this kind of mental illness first hand. I have, and the way this story was told hit the nail on the head. This film may be uncomfortable for some to watch due to the subject matter, but the slow, grinding, gutwrenching nature of depression was beautifully captured in Christine. If you've ever been to that dark place of desparation, then you'll appreciate this film. I already knew how the story was going to end, which made it even harder to watch at times, especially since I knew it was based on the true story of Christine Chubbuck, the news anchor who shot herself in the head on live television. Watching Christine teeter back and forth between the hope of bettering her circumstances, and the painful descent back down brought me to tears at times. One scene that really caught me was at around three-quarters into the movie. In the middle of conducting an interview, she has a temporary mental breakdown. She calmly tells the interviewee that they will continue the interview at a later date, and leaves the room. She runs into the bathroom and cracks, bursting into a tormented sob session. The moment her friend runs in and asks if she's okay, Christine instantaneously straightens herself up and says she's fine. A moment like that is even more haunting knowing that eventually, Christine will later take her own life with the cameras rolling, and all aimed at her.

It's 1973 Sarasota, Florida. Christine Chubbuck (Rebecca Hall) is a struggling TV news reporter doing humanist stories. Watergate is heating up and she is high-minded about reporting. George (Michael C. Hall) is the handsome anchor. Camerawoman Jean is her best friend. Station manager Michael tells them that the station is failing and pushes, "If it bleeds, it leads." Christine's doctor has a dire diagnosis. Station owner Bob Andersen has purchased another news station in big market Baltimore and is looking take along one reporter. Pressure mounts as she does something shocking on live TV.This movie is based on true events as it tells the audience in the opening credits. It's hampered by a story that climaxes in one big moment after two meandering hours. There are lots of interesting sign posts to detour from the path but the story never goes down those roads. There's a great creepy gun guy but he's an one-off. There's a truncated affair that never starts. We're left with an intriguing performance from Rebecca Hall of a tightly wound woman but it is mostly internal. It's two hours of frustrating powerlessness as we watch a woman drowning in her own mind. That could be compelling but somehow, this is unsatisfying.