So, this is an oddity. A meta documentary that follows actress Kate Lyn Shiel (House of Cards, The Girlfriend Experience) as she prepares for the role of Christine Chubbuck, a 29-year-old TV news reporter who shot herself live on air in 1974. With so little information to go on as to what kind of person Christine was Kate does what she can to get under the skin of the 'character', reading up on suicide, interviewing her colleagues, psychiatrists, and poring over her suicide note. But as the day of the re-enactment approaches Kate begins to doubt if she can pull the trigger…
Even though at times it feels like Kate is playing the role of an actress preparing for the role of Christine (too many gazes into the middle distance, an ill-advised moody trip through Christine's house) Kate Plays Christine remains a stirring study of method acting. Although hamstrung by the lack of background information, Kate researches what she can and begin to piece together the roots Christine's depression and what happened on that day: she was frustrated that her hard-hitting stories weren't been aired, she was smarting from a romantic rejection of a colleague, and was told by her doctor that if she didn't get pregnant in the next few years she was unlikely to. She confessed to her family in the days before that she was feeling depressed and suicidal. More so than usual.
Little by little Kate is able to understand Christine's state of mind – there's no footage of the day available and she only hears what Christine sounded like mere days before the shoot when a colleague unearths an interview he kept – but in dressing up in Christine's clothes, applying a wig and getting a tan, Kate tries to walk in her shoes. But who was she? Why did she style her bedroom to that of a teenager? One colleague advises that Kate better bring "a simmering undercurrent of resentment" to play Christine.
Not just an exploration of method acting, director Robert Greene ensures his documentary also explores suicide and the effects it has on those left behind - "I'd take a shitty day over a no-day," says Kate's co-star playing Christine’s mother – and what the action of committing this very personal act live on air accomplished: "It didn't achieve anything… no one saw it," says one dismissive anchor. There's also an investigation of the viewer's fascination with death-as-entertainment - Christine’s last words on air were "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood-and guts, and in living colour, you are going to see another first—attempted suicide," – and turns our desire to watch back on ourselves. It's difficult stuff.
But it doesn't have it all its own way. The dialogue Kate is saddled with for the re-enactments is sadly flat and the scenes themselves decidedly stagey. It can drag too and the 'twist' finale is misjudged but Kate Plays Christine remains a stirring documentary.
