Film: Choke

[AmorRoark]

SXSW Movie Review: Choke
Posted on Saturday, March 15th, 2008 at 1:36 am by: Mel Valentin

After watching Choke, an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s (Survivor, Fight Club) novel directed by Clark Gregg, the words vulgar, crude, profane, blasphemous, obscene, and, best of all, hilarious, all come to mind. A sharp critique aimed at our self-centered, self-absorbed culture, with a few digs at group therapy, psychiatry, and dysfunctional parenting, Choke is the kind of film that can be only made outside the Hollywood system, then gets picked up by a Hollywood-based distributor after it becomes a hit with festival audiences and critics, as Choke did at the Sundance Film Festival two months ago. Choke was picked up by Fox Searchlight, with a released planned for late August, a lucky month for them (Napoleon Dynamite, Little Miss Sunshine were both released in August).

Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) has a problem, actually many, many problems. Victor numbs himself with meaningless sex with a random assortment of women, young, middle-aged, beautiful, and not-beautiful, then shows up for his weekly group therapy for sex addicts. When he’s not pursuing women with his fellow sex addict and best friend, Denny (Brad William Henke), he’s working as a “historical interpreter” (i.e., tour guide) at a Colonial-era amusement park. Frequent run-ins with his boss, Lord High Charlie (Clark Gregg), who takes the Colonial experience far too seriously, don’t help much. Worse, Victor’s mother, Ida (Anjelica Huston), a former grifter who made Victor’s life extremely difficult, has been hospitalized with Dementia and the prognosis is far from good.


To cover the costs of the expensive private facility that’s caring for his mother, Victor runs a scam on unsuspecting restaurant patrons: he chokes on food, hoping one of them, preferably someone with money and a conscience will “save” him. Once they save him, he has them on the hook, frequently contacting them with requests for money to pay his bills or cover fictitious medical procedures (money he dutifully sends to the private hospital). Everything changes for Victor (as it should) when he meets Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald), a seemingly brilliant doctor who suggests a novel, experimental procedure for saving Ida from Alzheimer’s and dying prematurely. And that’s all before an out-of-left-field twist about Victor’s paternal identity presents itself, upending Victor’s views of who he is and who he wants to be.

If you’ve read or seen the film adaptation of Fight Club, then Choke is more of the same: sharp social and cultural critique delivered through scabrous, scatological, offensive, outrageous humor, all in service of whatever themes Palahniuk wants to express. Not surprisingly for a novelist for whose work pushes boundaries hard, adaptations of his work run the risk of appealing to only a small segment of moviegoers or a larger segment, but only if the adapters water it down it considerably. The latter happened here, at least where the ending is concerned (expect something wholly different from the novel). The new ending fits the film adaptation, but it veers far from the novel’s Old Testament-style ending. But that’s a minor problem for Palahniuk’s fans (or it should be) and a non-problem for moviegoers new to Palahniuk’s novels or Fight Club (all five of you).

Unfortunately, Choke has none of Fight Club’s hyperactive visual style. Gregg doesn’t have David Fincher’s (Zodiac, Panic Room, Se7en) talent or skill as a director, but he also didn’t have Fight Club’s budget or Brad Pitt/Ed Norton-level stars. What Gregg does have, though, is a talented cast in the always underrated Sam Rockwell, excellent here as the emotionally damaged, amoral sex addict/con man Victor, Angelica Huston as his grifter mother, sweet and loving one moment, emotionally manipulative the next, Kelly McDonald, a Scottish actress memorable in No Country for Old Men who’s just as good here showing solid range, and Brad William Henke as Victor’s best friend and fellow screw-up/sex addict, who does the big man/wounded vulnerability bit convincingly.

Film Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review Link

IMDB Link

Thoughts? Are you Palahniuk fans excited? Ready to be dissappointed? Anything?

 

[ladyinthesky]

I am a HUGE fan, ive been waiting for this movie for a while. i heard they were going to make it but i wasnt sure when

ive read a lot of his books, CHOKE was the first one i read from him
im not sure how it will do in the theaters though

they have to get someone sick and twisted to play the main guy

 

[Finder]

I'm waiting for this to come out and heard it played well at Sundance. I recently re-read Choke, so I'm ready. :D

 

[ladyinthesky]

i might have to read it again, its been a while...theres gonna be a lot of sex lol

edit: wow 8.5 out of 10
not bad

hey if youre big fans like me
just saw that they are making Lullaby too

 

[Finder]

I thought Survivor was next up.

 

[ladyinthesky]

That would be cool too

 

[h.a.]

Great book, look forward to seeing the film. Interesting to hear they will be making more movies based on his books. I wonder if they will be as narrative centered as Fight Club, seems like a necessity with his rather thought oriented writing.

 

[AmorRoark]

Oh, it hits theaters Aug 1 just so you all know.

Video Interview with Choke director Clark Gregg

 

[ladyinthesky]

^thanks i was trying to figure out when it came out

 

[continuousbeing2]

I really want to see this, as I LOVE Sam Rockwell and I enjoyed the book thoroughly.

 

[AmorRoark]

I went to my school's library in hope to pick this up but they didn't have any Chuck Palahniuk. How fucked up is that?

 

[ladyinthesky]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_bUZIWinLE
i think its gonna be awesome

 

[AmorRoark]

^ haha I watched that but I saw there were 3 other clips and I had to stop myself. Don't want to ruin it.

 

[ladyinthesky]

yeah i just wanted to see if it was worth paying 10 bucks for
cant wait

 

[L2R]

 

[AmorRoark]

When are we ever going to learn we can't use images from impawards.com?

 

[spork]

It's about time!

 

[L2R]

rehosted

 

[the better green]

I am looking forward to this. Im a big fan of Palahniuk. Ever since i heard about it being shown at sundance i was praying someone would leak it. Guess i have to wait until august...

 

[Chaos Butterfly]

August!!!

But I want it NOW!!!!!!!