Christina

I'm not sure why my view is so different from other reviews but it is. I watched this movie from beginning to end in the hope that I can prevent as many people as possible from wasting their time doing the same. Originally Christina may have been a beautiful story. Unfortunately, the translation to film is in almost every regard poorly done. Perhaps with enough budget, a rewritten script and different actors it could be a good watch but the makers had none of these.

Set in Berlin after the end of WWII, it is a dark secret tale in the family of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" or "Sophie's Choice". This movie has none of their subtlety and though filmed on a single set like Woolf the claustrophobia doesn't enhance the story the way Mike Nichols' directing did. It just makes "Christina" claustrophobic.

The title character is unconvincing as someone who lived through the horror of Berlin at the end of the war. In Nicki Aycox's defense it is her lines more than anything that make her seem not tragic but ridiculous. We know there were "bombs everywhere" and that "they just kept falling" because she tells us six separate times. (And of course because most students of history knew that before they watched)

After the first half hour I wanted the GI boyfriend to either walk out or kick the German police officer out of the apartment. But instead he spends most of his time being dumbstruck. The police officer's motivation is never clear. He's investigating a crime but why, everything that happened in Berlin at the end of WWII this particular case is so important is never revealed.

But when Billy talks about his visit to the death camps I just wanted to smack everyone involved. In one statement the horror that was The Holocaust was belittled and used as a metaphor for an infinitely smaller and morally complicated event. The audacity of that one aspect of the film alone is enough to make this a Must (not) See film.

This is a serious morality play. With only 3 characters, played in a single room, it begins slowly and builds to a gripping climax. The German police inspector and the woman he intends to arrest and deliver to the American authorities for trial are superbly played by Stephen Lang and Nicki Aycox, respectively. The American soldier, well-played by Jordan Belfi, represents American decency, as well as the general naivete of American soldiers in general -- a naivete commented upon by the inspector. Billed as based on actual events, I surmise that it was crafted out of a number of real-life events in Germany after the Russians took over Berlin. I strongly recommend it.

Christina is a moving and powerful film. It is cleverly staged and lighted. The performances of the 3 main characters are all compelling. It is a dramatic, captivating story that is remarkable relevant to today's world of seemingly endless war. The effects of war, subtle and profound, are presented in a way that makes the living hell become real for those fortunate to have not experienced it first hand. The fact that the film was shot in a condensed time frame, sequentially and on a limited budget make it even more remarkable. The entire movie is shot on one set, yet the camera movements and angles amplify the dialog very effectively and focus the attention of the viewer.

This has got to be one among the best jobs of acting I've seen, especially when the play consisted of just three actors. I say a play because I felt like I was at a play and not watching a movie. It was awesome. Nicki Aycox did such a great job in the lead role, and Jordan Belfi and Stephen Lang were great in their respective roles. The whole movie occurs in one room, and starts like you know know what's going to happen, but as it goes on, it builds up into a mystery and you don't know what's really going. The actors really make you feel like you are there, right at the end of World War 2 in Germany. You get pulled into the characters lives and it makes you think and feel about what their lives were like, and makes you think hard about the story. Great job, well done. Thank you!

This drama takes place in a single room, a place at first of playfulness and mounting sexual tension, and then very skillfully the film's dialog shifts to confront the viewer with a complex and tense emotional situation that lays bare the awful choices that a young mother has had to face in the holocaust of Nazi Berlin's final days. Steven Lang's performance as a tenacious police detective is totally unexpected for those who saw him as the wonderfully tyrannical Colonel in Avatar. Niki Aycock endowed her character with such a sweep of emotional scope that it could well have required therapy after the shoot. Jordan Belfi's role is that of a reactor to the duel taking place between Lang an Aycock and he handles it seamlessly.It is reassuring that true art can still be produced on a budget when an intelligent script and sensitive direction give fine actors a platform. Superb, instinctive acting is accomplished by the three person cast. A thought provoking and engaging film.